Liftoff of Starsem's 15th commercial launch!

December 28, 2005

The GIOVE-A was carried by Soyuz from launch pad no. 6 at Baikonur Cosmodrome(Photo: ©ESA).

Europe's first satellite in its new Galileo space-based navigation system lifted off today from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz launcher.

The launch occured right on time at 11:19 a.m. local time, as the Soyuz departed launch pad no. 6 and climbed into sunny skies over Baikonur Cosmodrome. Tracking cameras followed the launcher's progress as it headed downrange across Kazakhstan and Russia.

After 8 min. and 48 sec. of flight, the GIOVE-A satellite and its Fregat upper stage were separated. A total of three burns with the Fregat upper stage will occur, leading to the GIOVE-A's injection into its final 23,222-km. circular orbit following a total flight time of 3 hrs. 42 min.

The cube-shaped GIOVE-A is the first of two Galileo demonstrator spacecraft, and will perform functions that include measuring the radiation environment in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), testing critical Galileo technologies, validating the novel features of Galileo's signal design, and securing access to the navigation system frequencies allocated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).


For additional information on the successful Starsem GIOVE-A launch, review the previous updates, along with the post-mission press release and Starsem's official launch kit.

Mission updates:


• Read our December 28 mission update which describes the latest successful Soyuz launch in detail.
• The December 27 update details the erection of Starsem's Soyuz on the launch pad with its GIOVE-A payload.
• Follow the integration of GIOVE-A with the Soyuz third stage in our our December 23 mission update.
• Read the December 21 mission update, which reported on the completion of integration for the GIOVE-A satellite payload.
• See our first GIOVE-A mission update from December 2, which described the satellite's arrival at Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Press release:


• Read our press release about this successful Starsem mission.

Launch kit:


• Download the Starsem Starsem GIOVE-A launch kit for additional information on the mission and the Soyuz launch system. (2,344 Kb)

Related links:


• European Space Agency and the European Commission: Development partners for the Galileo system
• Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd: Manufacturer of the GIOVE-A satellite
• Galileo Joint Undertaking: Management organization for the Galileo program's development phase