WELLINGTON, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the first two satellites of its Celeste mission from New Zealand to begin testing a complementary low Earth orbit (LEO) layer for Europe's Galileo navigation satellite system.
The pair, built by Spain's GMV and France's Thales Alenia Space, lifted off aboard New Zealand-based launch provider Rocket Lab's Electron rocket late Saturday local time and separated successfully about an hour later.
This marks the beginning of their early operations phase, an ESA statement said, adding the two satellites will validate core technologies and new signals and service capabilities.
The Celeste in-orbit demonstration will eventually comprise 11 satellites, with additional launches planned for 2027, noted the statement.
The mission will demonstrate how an LEO satellite navigation constellation can complement Europe's under-construction Galileo system in medium Earth orbit, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher was quoted as saying.
Celeste was among the first ESA missions to embrace a New Space-inspired development approach, enabling faster and more flexible deployment of satellites and technical capabilities, Aschbacher said.
Celeste satellites, flying closer to Earth, offer more robust signals and new frequencies for applications like autonomous vehicles, railway, maritime and aviation, improved coverage in urban and polar regions, disaster response, connected devices and indoor navigation, according to ESA.
Results from Celeste will prepare Europe toward the establishment of an operational navigation layer in LEO, complementing Galileo and EGNOS, the first pan-European satellite navigation system, noted the agency. ■
