Overview
- Lift-off is scheduled for 06:01 CET from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, carrying Galileo SAT 33 and SAT 34 to medium Earth orbit.
- Spacecraft separation is planned about 3 hours 55 minutes after launch, followed by orbit-raising to an operational altitude near 23,222 kilometers.
- The satellites will join 27 active spacecraft as on-orbit spares to bolster availability, redundancy and precision for global users.
- Ariane 6 will fly in a two-booster configuration with a Vulcain 2.1 core and Vinci upper stage, which will be steered to a graveyard orbit after deployment.
- ESA manages the launch with Arianespace, OHB prepared the satellites for the European Commission, and EUSPA will operate them, with four more first-generation units queued before the second-generation rollout.