Atomic clock woes lose partial redundancy on already launched Galileo sats and delay further flights

by | Jan 18, 2017 | ESA | 0 comments

It has been reported that some atomic clocks on the interim and full production satellites in the Galileo navigation satellite constellation have faults. According to spaceintelreport.com, 10 clocks of two different types (hydrogen maser and rubidium types) had been affected on four different satellites: five hydrogen maser clocks on the interim Galileo IOV satellites and two hydrogen maser clocks on the Galileo FOC satellites & three rubidium clocks on the fully operational Galileo FOC satellites.

According to the report by Peter de Selding, one satellite has lost two of four clocks (two of each type) carried with, only one being needed to operate. A further three have lost the remaining eight but one clock was repaired leaving seven failed clocks. All the satellites remain in full operation will all those affected only having a partial loss of redundancy (only one clock is needed to work). All the clocks (both designs), were built by the Swiss firm of SpectraTime. The mysterious failure mechanism has not been divulged save to note that it requires the rare occurrence of parameters moving in the same direction. The navigation satellites of India and China may also be affected.

Because of the fault, future launches of Galileo satellites have been delayed.

 

About Seradata

Seradata produces the renowned Seradata database. Trusted by over 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, Seradata is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).

For more information go to https://www.seradata.com/product/

Related Articles

Categories

Archives

Tags

nasaspacexecoreviewsissesaArianespacechinavideoFalcon 9v1.2FT Block 525virgin galacticfalcon 9ULARoscosmosevaspacewalkDGABlue Originaviation weekInternational Space StationRocket LabaresIGTsoyuzBeidouawardsStarlinkAirbus DSboeingspaceSatellite broadcastingrussiamoonOneWebISROCargo Return VehiclemarsblogresearchspaceshiptwoorionjaxamarsimpactEutelsatdelayhyperbolademocratrocketlunarhypertextthales alenia spaceSESobamagoogle lunar prizelaunchVegatourismconstellationbarack obamafiguresnorthspaceflightIntelsatnode 2fundedElon MuskLockheed MartinRaymond Lygo2009Express MD-2Atlas Vromedassault aviationss2sstl2008wk2aviationLucyradiouksuborbitalVirgin Orbittestmissiledocking portexplorationSLSAriane 5 ECAinternetLong March 2D/2China Manned Space Engineeringsts-122Ariane 5Northrop GrummanElectronmissile defensenewspapercotsgalileospace tourismflight2010Long March 4CspaceportExpress AMU 1buildspace stationaltairsoyuz 2-1ashuttleProton Minternational astronautical congressscaled compositesAriane 6Intelsat 23space shuttleLauncherOneEuropean Space AgencyCosmoshanleybudgetrulesnew yorkLong March 2CInmarsatnew shepardVietnamatvshenzhoucongressMojaveboldenOrbital ATKcnesUS Air ForceGuiana Space Centerlunar landeriacApollolawsSpace Systems/LoralUK Space AgencyLong March 4BKuaizhou 1AkscElectron KSILSprotondarpalaunchesTalulah RileyVega CFalcon 9v1.2 Block 5North KoreaeuSkylonAstriumlanderbaseusaastronautdragonpicturefiveeventTelesatSpace InsuranceSSLViasatAprilSNC50thfalconWednesdaySea LaunchLong Marchinterviewcustomer

Stay Informed with Seradata

Stay informed on the latest news, insights, and more from Seradata by signing up for our newsletter.