GNSS NEWS

The European Space Agency has achieved a European first with Celeste, successfully transmitting a navigation signal from low Earth orbit, following the launch of the mission’s first satellites on March 28.

Last year, history was made as a navigation receiver on the Moon determined its position in real time using signals from approximately 410 000 km away. The receiver, called the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), acquired signals from four navigation satellites orbiting Earth: two Galileo satellites and two GPS satellites.

On 28 March, the European Space Agency (ESA) took a major step forward in strengthening Europe's ambition for more resilient satellite navigation, as the first two satellites of the Celeste in-orbit demonstration mission lifted off from New Zealand aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron. Their mission is to begin testing a complementary low Earth orbit layer for Galileo.

Update: Rocket Lab has announced the next launch attempt for its Electron rocket carrying ESA's first two Celeste satellites is 28 March at 10:14 CET.