Europe successfully deployed the first test satellite of its US$4.5 billion Galileo navigation system in space yesterday, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
"We have a working satellite," the ESA's project leader Javier Bendicto said from Russia's Baikonur launch center in the steppes of northern Kazakhstan.
He was speaking after the GIOVE-A, launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket at 5:19am, successfully opened its solar panels and booted up its onboard computers.
The satellite will test equipment, including an atomic clock, ahead of future launches of other satellites making up the Galileo network, which is destined to give mariners, pilots, drivers and others a pinpoint-accurate navigational tool.
"In fact, everything happened even better than expected because of a high quality placement in orbit, thanks to the Soyuz rocket," Benedicto said.
Mission control officials announced several hours later that the probe had been successfully placed into its definitive orbit 23,000km from Earth.
The GIOVE-A satellite -- the name an acronym for Galileo In Orbit Validation Element but also the Italian name for the planet Jupiter whose moons were discovered by the famous astronomer -- will test various technologies including an atomic clock that ESA says is the most exact ever sent into space.
The launcher's first three stages separated as scheduled, around nine minutes after the launch.
Galileo will allow Europe to gain strategic independence, as satellites have become indispensable for regulating air, maritime and lately automobile traffic.
The launch, originally scheduled for Monday, had been delayed by two days after the discovery of anomalies in the solar stations tasked with following the satellite's progress in space.
This is the first time that the ESA, which runs the project's initial phase along with the EU, is launching a satellite for a medium orbit.
Galileo will both compete with and complement the current US Global Positioning System (GPS), which was originally developed for military targeting and positioning.
The European system was the first to be designed for civilian use.
The US and the EU last year reached an accord to adopt common operating standards for the systems, overcoming US concerns that the EU system will compromise the security of GPS, on which the US military is heavily dependent.
Galileo will also be compatible with the Russian GLONASS network, which like the US system is controlled by military operators.
According to ESA, Galileo, which will be under civilian control, is designed to deliver real-time positioning accuracy down to the meter range, which is unprecedented for a publicly available system.
It will guarantee service under all but the most extreme circumstances and will inform users within seconds of a failure of any satellite, which will make it especially valuable where safety is crucial, such as running trains, guiding cars and landing aircraft.
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