Michael takes pictures of Arianespace VA233 milestone mission
On 17 November 2016 at 10.06 am Ariane 5 VA233 blasted off into space from the Guiana Space Center (CSG) in French Guiana. With this milestone mission Arianespace placed four more satellites for the Galileo constellation in orbit.
Galileo, an iconic project for Europe, is a new civil global satellite navigation system. Under civilian control, it will offer a guaranteed, high-precision positioning service and will end Europe’s dependence on the American GPS system. The program is funded and owned by the European Union, with overall responsibility for management and implementation held by the European Commission. To date, 14 Galileo satellites have been orbited by Arianespace Soyuz launchers on seven missions from French Guiana. With the inaugural Ariane 5 launch, this number was increased to 18. When complete, the Galileo system will consist of 24 operational satellites, along with the ground infrastructure for the provision of positioning, navigation and timing services.
Michael wants to thank Arianespace for their great support and photo permission. Special thanks also to Hasselblad for the technical support which made it possible to portray this historic mission in a very unique way.