Cape Canaveral, FL — On the evening of Monday, September 16, 2024, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying two critical navigation satellites for Europe’s Galileo global positioning system. The launch is scheduled between 6:55 PM and 7:28 PM EDT and will be an important step towards continued development of Europe’s alternative to the U.S. GPS and Russia’s GLONASS systems.
The satellites, Galileo FOC FM26 and FM32, are part of Europe’s plan to provide robust, precise navigation services, further expanding the Galileo constellation’s operational capacity. These satellites will orbit at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), enhancing the system’s precision and availability to millions of users worldwide.
Initially, the satellites were slated to launch aboard the Soyuz-ST rocket, but geopolitical factors following the Russian invasion of Ukraine made this option untenable. The mission was then assigned to the Ariane 6 rocket, but delays in that program necessitated another change. In a crucial decision for European space efforts, the European Space Agency (ESA) contracted SpaceX to carry out this launch.
