Rocket Lab launches GPS-type demo satellite for Europe
Rocket Lab this morning successfully placed a European Space Agency (ESA) smallsat into orbit, its Electron rocket lifting off from one of its two launchpads in New Zealand.
The smallsat, dubbed Celeste, is the first of two such demo satellites that ESA has contracted Rocket Lab to launch. They are designed to test a low Earth orbit constellation for providing global navigation and location information to users on the ground, similar to the U.S.’s GPS constellation. Celeste will work from low orbit with Europe’s medium orbit Galileo constellation, but being smaller will be cheaper and faster to build and launch.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
38 SpaceX
15 China
5 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Rocket Lab this morning successfully placed a European Space Agency (ESA) smallsat into orbit, its Electron rocket lifting off from one of its two launchpads in New Zealand.
The smallsat, dubbed Celeste, is the first of two such demo satellites that ESA has contracted Rocket Lab to launch. They are designed to test a low Earth orbit constellation for providing global navigation and location information to users on the ground, similar to the U.S.’s GPS constellation. Celeste will work from low orbit with Europe’s medium orbit Galileo constellation, but being smaller will be cheaper and faster to build and launch.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
38 SpaceX
15 China
5 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The launch carried two separate spacecraft in the Celeste series. Each was built by a different manufacturer. Hope they do well. LEO-PNT is heating up: Centispace (China) and now ESA just in the last month, and Xona (USA) later this year. (If we ignore the elephant in the room, namely Starlink, but for now it’s just a signal of opportunity, not a declared PNT service.)
From what I’ve read, the payload was actually two cubesats, one 12U and one 16U.
Go Rocket Lab! Looks like maybe first time they lead Russia by two launches to orbit. The booster work for the military must be helping the factory for engines and other parts run more efficiently.
I remember when it first appeared the US system was called Navstar-GPS. When its ‘competitors’ came online the then shortened GPS name had stuck, so the whole system of nav-aid satellites (GLONASS, Galileo etc.) had to be called GNSS.
The EU Galileo system was originally intended to facilitate road pricing, with hauliers required to subscribe to the Galileo service and paying a fee for miles driven (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4552132.stm. Article from 2005), with a plan to roll this pay-as-you-drive program to all road users. Hasn’t happened yet. I don’t now the current state of play. People hate it.