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Soyuz rocket launches GIOVE-B satellite

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Sunday, April 27, 2008

An earlier Soyuz-FG launch
Image: Spacecom.
(Image missing from Commons: image; log)

At 22:16 GMT yesterday (04:16 today local time), a Russian Soyuz-FG/Fregat carrier rocket was launched from Site 31/6 the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the European GIOVE-B experimental Navigation satellite. The launch was conducted by Starsem, a Russo-European organisation which commercially markets Soyuz-FG and Soyuz-2 launches. GIOVE-B was successfully deployed into a medium Earth orbit at 02:01 GMT this morning, after an ascent lasting nearly four hours.

GIOVE-B will serve as a prototype for the Galileo positioning system. It is the second such prototype, GIOVE-A is already in orbit, having been launched in December 2005. GIOVE-B was originally scheduled to launch in April 2006, but was delayed for a number of reasons. The next Galileo launch is scheduled to be the first cluster of operational satellites, which will be launched in 2010. The next Soyuz launch will be a Soyuz-U in mid-may, with a Progress spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station.

This was the 20th orbital launch of 2008, the 24th Soyuz-FG launch, and the 1,732nd flight of a Soyuz rocket of any variant.


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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
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