\tApplications<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t04\/09\/2025
\n\t\t\t\t445 views
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t10 likes<\/p>\n
Following the announcement of the upcoming\u00a0launch of LEO-PNT\u2019s first satellites<\/a>, ESA has now unveiled the name of the mission. Celeste, as it has been officially designated, will test the potential of a new, low Earth orbit layer of satellites to enhance Galileo\u2019s resilience and complement its capabilities.<\/p>\n Over the past three decades, European satellite navigation systems have become integral to our society. Galileo and EGNOS are a huge success today, powering everything from smartphones to critical infrastructure. Now, ESA\u2019s Low Earth Orbit Positioning Navigation Timing (LEO-PNT) mission, Celeste, <\/a>is working to ensure these systems remain robust, secure and available.<\/p>\n \tGalileo and Celeste, a story of support and resilience<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGalileo and Celeste<\/a><\/p>\n The name Celeste is a symbolic wink to the scientific past on which satellite navigation is founded. Maria Celeste was Galileo Galilei\u2019s daughter, and the two shared a strong emotional and intellectual bond. She also honoured her father\u2019s love for astronomy. Based on historic letters between father and daughter, we know how much Galileo valued his daughter and trusted her judgement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, Celeste becomes the name of ESA\u2019s LEO-PNT mission that will \u2018mediate\u2019 between Galileo and the rest of the world. The mission aims to demonstrate in orbit new capabilities for added resilience, representing a new dimension of strength for Europe\u2019s navigation capabilities.<\/p>\n Celeste features a constellation of ten satellites that will fly close to Earth to test innovative signals across various frequency bands. The first two Celeste satellites, built in parallel by GMV and Thales Alenia Space, are set to launch in<\/a>\u00a0the coming months<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tCeleste<\/a><\/p>\n Celeste joins Europe\u2019s satellite navigation family with another symbolic name that links the past to the present, and the future. Europe\u2019s global satellite navigation system is named Galileo, in honour of the famous Italian scientist Galileo Galilei and in recognition of his pioneering role in astronomy, physics and time measurement, all foundational to precise satellite navigation.<\/p>\n The demonstrator satellites for Galileo, launched in 2005 and 2008, were called GIOVE,\u00a0after the Italian word for Jupiter.<\/a>\u00a0This name also paid tribute to Galileo\u2019s achievements in discovering the planet\u2019s four largest Moons which were used to determine longitude from anywhere on Earth.<\/p>\n \tAbout Celeste (LEO-PNT)<\/p>\n ESA\u2019s LEO-PNT (Low Earth Orbit Positioning Navigation and Timing) mission Celeste is in its in-orbit demonstrator phase and features a constellation of 10 satellites plus two spares that will fly in low Earth orbit to test innovative signals across various frequency bands. Its goal is to advance satellite navigation concepts for resilient positioning and timing services.<\/p>\n The mission was approved at ESA\u2019s Council at Ministerial Level of 2022 and is supported by Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Two parallel contracts to develop the fleet were awarded in 2024 to two consortia involving over 50 entities from 14 countries.<\/p>\n The in-orbit demonstrator includes end-to-end definition, development of space and test user segment, launch, ground segment and operations, experimentation, demonstration of services and satellite disposal. For more information, visit\u00a0www.esa.int\/LEO-PNT<\/a><\/p>\n Like<\/p>\n Thank you for liking<\/p>\n You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Applications 04\/09\/2025 445 views 10 likes Following the announcement of the upcoming\u00a0launch of LEO-PNT\u2019s first satellites, ESA has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-114551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}