Space News reports that the Galileo IOV FM4 satellite of ESA’s planned navigation satellite constellation has failed in orbit. The fault began on 27 June 2014 when the E1 signal failed recovering itself within seconds. This was followed by an immediate power drop in the two other channels which did not recover. The full satellite then was shut down into a safe mode by ground engineers. An attempt to recover the spacecraft has failed.
The Galileo IOV spacecraft was one of four made by Astrium (now Airbus DS) in conjunction with Thales Alenia Space which have now been launched into orbit. The fault is unlikely to delay the launch of the rest of the constellation which was made by OHB in conjunction with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited.
