Europe reluctantly chooses SpaceX to launch its GPS satellites

SpaceX has reached a deal to launch 4 Galileo satellites subsequent yr in coordination with the European Space Agency, based on a Wall Street Journal report. Two launches on Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rockets will add to the 28 satellites at present orbiting Earth in Europe’s international navigation system.

The deal nonetheless should attain a remaining approval by the European Union’s govt department, which is more likely to occur earlier than the tip of 2025. A spokesperson for the European Commission advised the WSJ they’re “taking all necessary steps to ensure that the Galileo constellation continues to provide outstanding services in the coming months and years.”

The Falcon 9 rockets carrying Galileo satellites will launch from the United States, based on the European Space Agency’s Director of Navigation Javier Benedicto. The European Commission shouldn’t be desperate to depend on a U.S. firm to ship vital infrastructure into area, however the battle in Russia and delays in Europe’s Ariane rocket program have left the continent with no different choices, officers say.

The European Galileo system rivals the U.S.’s Global Position System, China’s Beidou, and Russia’s GLONASS. This will mark the primary first time in 15 years that Galileo satellites have been launched exterior an E.U. territory. SpaceX CEO Musk has by no means earlier than been tapped to launch European satellites containing categorized gear. The WSJ says officers within the U.S. and E.U. are in talks on an settlement to guard that categorized gear, used for European army communications.

SpaceX didn’t instantly reply to Gizmodo’s request for remark, whereas the European Commission responded with comparable remarks made to the WSJ.

The European Commission has just lately come at odds with Musk over his content material moderation at X, accusing the billionaire of permitting misinformation to flourish. Just final week, Insider reported that Musk was contemplating pulling X from Europe altogether in response to new regulation enacted by the fee.

SpaceX’s final cooperative effort with the European Space Agency was the launch of the Euclid telescope in July. The six-year mission to analyze the darkish universe only in the near past discovered its information stars once more after a rocky begin that has been removed from clean crusing.

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