Russia bans launches from Guyana of Galileo satellites, European GPS – Corriere.it

Russia has blocked the launch of the European GPS Galileo system from French Guiana. With tweet Dmitry Rogozin, Director of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, reported that all operations with Russian Soyuz carriers from the European Space Base to the Equator have been suspended. Responding to Europe’s Sanctions on Russia as well.

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-?????? (Rogozin) February 26, 2022

All 87 technicians and engineers including those from the respective Russian industries and the launch team will return home to interrupt the preparation Next launch expected in April From a pair of Galileo navigation satellites. Union Space Commissioner Thierry Breton immediately confirmed that the decision does not cause problems for the constellation, ensuring the positioning service without modifications. He also added it Europe is ready to act decisively In order to protect critical structures in case of aggression.

In orbit at an altitude of 23,222 km, there are already 28 Galileo satellites to ensure full coverage. But others, in fact, are planned according to a redundancy scheme that includes 30 satellites of them You are in reserve to ensure continuity in case of failure. Everything is managed by Uspa, the new European Union space agency, which also includes the Copernicus Satellite Program for Earth Observation and Security. These will also be affected by the Russian veto at launch. Meanwhile, he’s getting ready The second generation of Galileo is ready for release soon and also in the Russian viewfinder Even if it is also planned to use the new European aircraft carrier Ariane-6 for these, it will make the first flight of the year. The commercial interests of the European company Arianespace carrying out the launches are affected because other commercial satellites besides Galileos are also being launched with Soyuz-2. Using this vector, 34 satellites from the constellation OneWeb, an international company, were brought into orbit in February.

Close cooperative relations with the United States and Europe began to show serious failures on the Russian side, far exceeding the joint activities that are being carried out aboard the International Space Station. Indeed, the issue of threats. Together with Russia, the European Space Agency is preparing Launch in September from Baikonur for the Mars probe Exomars Half European (Rover Rosalind Flanklin) and half Russian (landing module and proton carrier). Among other things, Kazakhstan, which hosts the Baikonur rental base in Moscow, refused to participate in the invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, Rogozin is expanding interventions to impede cooperation. He also identified in a memorandum the continued Russian participation in the joint NASA-Roscosmos program for the Venera-D probe to explore the planet Venus is inappropriate.

Rogozin became loyal to Putin Director of the Russian Space Agency in 2018 After becoming Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the defense industry, a position he held for seven years. In the early years after 2000, the European Space Agency (ESA) invested funds to build a launch pad for Soyuz carriers under an agreement with Russia’s Roscosmos to provide a medium-capacity launcher for commercial flights. And in October 2011 it went into operation with the launch of the first two Galileo satellites.