EU finalizing contract with SpaceX for Galileo launches

The European Union is in the final stages of completing a deal with SpaceX to launch four Galileo navigation satellites in 2024.

In press briefings during the European Space Summit in Seville, Spain, Nov. 7, Thierry Breton, commissioner for the internal market for the European Commission, said he was “finalizing the discussions” for a pair of Falcon 9 launches, each carrying two Galileo satellites, tentatively scheduled for April and July of 2024.

The last obstacle to completing a launch contract, he said, was negotiating a security agreement to protect sensitive technologies on the Galileo satellites, which previously had been launched from the European spaceport in French Guiana, when those satellites are being prepared for launch from the United States.

The launch contract itself was completed in July, Breton noted, and that the European Commission had approved a European Space Agency proposal to use the Falcon 9 for launching those satellites. He said the European Commission would spend 180 million euros ($192 million) on the Falcon 9 launches.

spacenews.com