Europe took a major step in its history by launching the first two operational Galileo satellites on Friday 21 October into orbit from the European Space Agency's (ESA) spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, with a Soyuz launcher to reach their orbit at 23.000 kilometres. The Galileo programme sets up an enhanced global satellite navigation system, providing a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service.

The first pair of satellites for Europe's Galileo global navigation satellite system were launched into orbit on Friday 21 October from the European Space Agency's (ESA) spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. This launching was an historical occasion, even more when the two European satellites were launched from the Russian Soyuz launcher, the same launcher that was used for Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin. Both satellites exceeded their target orbit of 23,000 kilometres 3 hours 49 minutes after liftoff. The Galileo programme aims to give citizens and businesses direct access to a satellite navigation signal powered in Europe. The launching was announced in May 2011.

These two satellites are the pioneering components of a new constellation that will make up a smart satellite navigation system for Europe. The two Galileo satellites launched on the Soyuz are part of the In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase that will see the Galileo system's space, ground and user segments extensively tested. Eventually, they will be joined by other satellites to make up a 30-strong fleet and the hope is that such a system will bring many economic benefits and inspire further growth and innovation.

The Galileo programme sets up an enhanced global satellite navigation system, providing a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service. It will offer three services, the Open Service (free of charge), and the Public Regulated Service (PRS) the Search-and-Rescue Service, as of 2014. Further services to follow later will include a Commercial Service and a Safety-of-Life Service for higher data throughput rate and higher accuracy authenticated data. The system is predicted to generate around €90 billion of additional revenues for industry over the next 20 years.