Second test satellite for Galileo launched, reaches orbit

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AFP) — A second experimental Giove-B satellite for the EU's Galileo satellite navigation project was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early Sunday.

The Soyuz rocket carrying the satellite was launched at 4:16 a.m. local time (2216 GMT Saturday) and placed the Giove-B into its projected orbit shortly after 0200 GMT, Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of Starstem, the Russo-European company in charge of the launch, said.

"The satellite separated" from the launcher which meant the launch "was a success," Le Gall said.

The satellite "reached its nominal orbit and the orbit's parameters were excellent," the navigation department chief of the European Space Agency (ESA) Didier Faivre said.

"The mission is a success,"...