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Feature story

GIOVE-B is mated with the Fregat upper stage for Starsem’s 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 the next Soyuz mission by Arianespace’s Starsem affiliate moved into a new phase with this week’s integration of the European GIOVE-B navigation satellite on 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 a 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’s creation in 1996.