SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The European Space Agency and the European Union want to provide an alternative to GPS — Global Positioning System, the space-based satellite navigation system operated by the United States — called Galileo, named after the astronomer who gave us the precursor of Newtonian physics. Galileo is a €5 billion project intended for civilian use scheduled to be completed and operational by 2019, with 27 satellites and 3 spares orbiting 14,600 miles above Earth.
The system suffered a setback on Saturday, though, when two satellites launched from French Guiana failed to attain their intended orbit, Phys.Org reports ( http://phys.org/news/2014-08-galileo-satellites.html ). It’s not immediately clear why there was a malfunction, and the agencies involved are investigating. In the meantime, however, Galileo’s French coordinator spoke to Agence France-Presse (AFP) ( http://www.afp.com/en/news/two-galileo-satellites-lose-their-way ) and said it will be be complicated to correct the satellites’ orbits.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Snotnose on Monday August 25 2014, @05:06AM
Been following this story since this morning, nobody has yet explained how a presumably correctly functioning rocket can toss 2 satellites into the wrong orbits. This is on the level of mixing up metric units with American units and missing Mars.
/ I blame ISIS
// Or ISIL, depending on who you listen to
/// The amount of BS they put out changed the mass around the launch point enough to change orbits.
//// On the other hand, looks like evil is massless
I came. I saw. I forgot why I came.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday August 25 2014, @07:15AM
According to what they said in radio this morning, the last rocket stage, which was supposed to bring it into the correct orbit, didn't work correctly.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.