‘Failed’ clocks fresh blow for Europe’s Galileo satellite system
Paris — Europe’s beleaguered Galileo satnav system has suffered another setback, with clocks failing onboard a number of satellites in space, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Wednesday. Designed to render Europe independent from America’s GPS, the €10bn project may experience further delays as the cause of the failure is investigated, ESA director-general Jan Woerner said in Paris. Eighteen orbiters have been launched for the Galileo constellation to date, a number that will ultimately be boosted to 30 operational satellites and two spares. Early, initial services were launched in December, and the failure of nine clocks out of 72 launched to date has not affected operations, Woerner said. No satellite has been declared "out" as a result of the glitch. "However, we are not blind ... If this failure has some systematic reason we have to be careful not to place more flawed clocks in space," he said. Each Galileo satellite has four ultra-accurate atomic timekeepers — two that us...
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