Europe launches two satellites into wrong orbit

[Nipuna]

ROUND and round and wrong they go. Two European Space Agency navigation satellites launched into the wrong orbit last weekend.

The satellites were meant to be the fifth and sixth in Europe's Galileo global positioning system, a network of 30 satellites expected to be up and running by 2020. They launched from French Guinea on a Soyuz rocket on 22 August, but did not make it to their projected orbits. The orbits were lower than planned, elliptical instead of round, and set at the wrong angle. Worse, it may not be possible reroute them.

"We do not know yet what can be done," says ESA spokesperson Franco Bonacina. The satellites carry 12 years' worth of fuel, but it would take most of that to move them to their intended orbits. "We will have to decide whether it is worth it," Bonacina says.

If they cannot be rescued, ESA may use them for technology demonstrations. "As we say in Italian, we don't want to throw the baby out of the window. We will make good use of them," Bonacina says. In that case, ESA will have to launch replacement satellites to complete Galileo. The next three Galileo launches are planned for December.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Orbital anomaly"