GIOVE-B is mated with the Fregat upper stage for its April 27 Soyuz launch

April 15, 2008

GIOVE-B is raised by an overhead crane for its installation atop the Fregat upper stage, visible in the background in Starsem’s Upper Composite Integration Facility.

Preparations for Starsem’s next Soyuz mission moved into a new phase with this week’s integration of the European GIOVE-B navigation satellite with its Fregat upper stage.

The activity took place in Starsem’s Upper Composite Integration Facility (UCIF), which is located inside the Site 112 building at Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome.  The UCIF is one of three Starsem-operated clean room facilities housed in the Site 112 building, and it is the final stop for GIOVE-B before its transfer for integration with the Soyuz launcher.

GIOVE-B will be the second spacecraft launched by Starsem in support of Europe’s developing Galileo satellite-based navigation system.  A Soyuz mission in December 2005 orbited GIOVE-A, which has been broadcasting Galileo signals from space since then.

The two GIOVE satellites are designed to test novel key technologies for the Galileo system, including the high-precision passive maser atomic clock and triple-channel transmission of navigation signals. Instruments aboard the satellites measure radiation and the spacecraft charging environment. 

One feature of GIOVE-B is its ability to transmit  MBOC (multiplexed binary offset carrier) signals, which are in accordance with an recently-reached agreement by the European Union and the United States for their respective satellite navigation systems.

The April 27 GIOVE-B launch will be Starsem’s 21st commercial mission since the company was created in 1996.

See the other Feature stories on Starsem's GIOVE-B launch: Soyuz launches GIOVE-B on the 2nd Starsem mission for Europe's Galileo system (April 27, 2008) Soyuz is ready for liftoff with GIOVE-B (April 24, 2008) GIOVE-B is cleared for fueling in preparation for Starsem’s April 27 launch (April 7, 2008) Starsem readies its launch of Europe’s second navigation satellite, GIOVE-B (March 21, 2008) For additional information on the GIOVE-B mission, read the Launch Kit.