WASHINGTON — The European Union is in the ultimate stages of completing a take care of SpaceX to launch 4 Galileo navigation satellites in 2024.
In press briefings in the course of the European Space Summit in Seville, Spain, Nov. 7, Thierry Breton, commissioner for the interior marketplace for the European Commission, said he was “finalizing the discussions” for a pair of Falcon 9 launches, each carrying two Galileo satellites, tentatively scheduled for April and July of 2024.
The last obstacle to completing a launch contract, he said, was negotiating a security agreement to guard sensitive technologies on the Galileo satellites, which previously had been launched from the European spaceport in French Guiana, when those satellites are being prepared for launch from america.
The launch contract itself was accomplished in July, Breton noted, and that the European Commission had approved a European Space Agency proposal to make use of the Falcon 9 for launching those satellites. He said the European Commission would spend 180 million euros ($192 million) on the Falcon 9 launches.
At an Oct. 19 meeting of the ESA Council, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said that the ultimate decision for using SpaceX to launch the Galileo satellites was within the hands of the Commission. “We’ve got prepared on the ESA side the contractual arrangements with an external launch company, but whether or not the launch will probably be decided to happen with SpaceX just isn’t in our hands,” he said. “It’s a call of the European Commission.”
There had been discussions for greater than a 12 months about using a non-European rocket, just like the Falcon 9, for launching those satellites due to delays within the Ariane 6, the retirement of the Ariane 5 and the withdrawal of the Soyuz after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Those satellites would augment the present operational Galileo constellation and function on-orbit replacements if other satellites fail.
“We’ve got no major anomalies ongoing in orbit. We’ve got no trends that indicate it is completely urgent to launch,” said Francisco-Javier Benedicto Ruiz, ESA’s director of navigation, ultimately month’s ESA Council meeting. Nevertheless, “we wish to hold on deploying.”
ESA had already contracted with SpaceX for 3 Falcon 9 launches, considered one of the Euclid astronomy spacecraft that took place in July and launches in 2024 of the Hera asteroid mission and EarthCARE Earth science satellite. ESA said it went with the Falcon 9 after the lack of the Soyuz, delays within the Ariane 6 and concerns concerning the Vega C, which stays out of service since a launch failure in December 2022.
The reliance on SpaceX for launching European spacecraft due to problems with Ariane 6 and Vega C has grow to be a source of embarrassment and frustration for European officials. “As an institutional client, I’m not glad with what’s happened,” Breton said at one briefing, referring to Ariane 6 delays. “We had a calendar which was promised but not kept to.”
Breton said he welcomed agreements announced the day before, in the course of the ESA portion of the European Space Summit, to shore up the European launch industry. That featured guaranteed financial support for a future batch of Ariane 6 and Vega C rockets, with as much as 340 million euros a 12 months for Ariane 6 and 21 million euros a 12 months for Vega C. That agreement also features a commitment of a minimum of 4 Ariane 6 and three Vega C launches a 12 months for European government customers.
He said there ought to be a “preference for Europe” when European institutions, including national governments, purchase launches, subtly criticizing those governments which have gone outside the continent, comparable to to SpaceX, for satellite launches. “This can be a sine qua non condition of autonomous access to space. That’s how we’ll ensure business viability of our launchers.”
In a Nov. 7 statement, Avio, the prime contractor for the Vega rocket, revealed other terms of the launch agreement. Avio will take over responsibilities for launch operations and sales of the Vega from Arianespace, a process slated to be accomplished by mid-2024. Avio said it expects to succeed in an agreement with Arianespace on the right way to handle the 17 currently contracted Vega launches.
The agreement also calls for allocation of existing infrastructure on the Kourou, French Guiana, spaceport for Vega rockets. That will include using the previous Ariane 5 pad for launches of the Vega E, an upgraded version of the Vega C with a brand new liquid-propellant upper stage in development.