14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with the European Space Agency (ESA) announce that two new navigation satellites have arrived at the organization's European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC), in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. At this point, the vehicles are undergoing extensive testing.
ESTEC boasts Europe's largest spacecraft testing and assembly facility. It reunites simulation facilities, assembly rooms and clean rooms under the same roof, and is able to conduct a vast variety of tests on spacecraft scheduled to launch into space.
The two satellites currently undergoing their paces at the facility will be part of the ESA Galileo constellation of navigation satellites, which is currently being assembled in geostationary orbit around Earth. They are the first of Galileo's Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites.
When they launch, the vehicles will join the 4 In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites ESA has already launched as the backbone of Galileo. The system is being developed to eliminate Europe's reliance on the American GPS positioning system.