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GSAT0215 (GALILEO 19)

European Navigation Satellite (Galileo) · ESA / European Commission

GSAT0215 (Galileo 19), launched December 2017, is part of another four-satellite Galileo launch that continued the constellation's rapid build-out toward global strength. By this point Galileo was already providing Initial Services to millions of smartphone users worldwide who had no idea their phone was quietly using European satellites alongside GPS every time it calculated a position. Reaching this stage of the four-satellite Ariane 5 launch cadence meant Galileo had, by December 2017, already deployed more satellites in two years than the program's entire first half-decade of Soyuz-based twin launches had managed.