GIOVE - standing for “Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element” - is the name that has been chosen for the two satellites which are currently being prepared to take the first step of the In-Orbit Validation phase towards full deployment of Galileo, the European satellite navigation system. GIOVE A, the first of the two satellites, was presented to the media while undergoing final preparations at the ESTEC test facilities prior to being sent to the Baïkonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, from where it will be launched by a Soyuz rocket end of December 2005. The second, GIOVE B, will be launched later in 2006, also from Baïkonur. Naming the satellites GIOVE pays fitting tribute to the achievements of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) not only in the field of astronomy but also navigation. On 7 January 1610, as one of the first to turn his telescope to the sky, the famous scientist discovered the first four satellites of the planet Jupiter. These were later named Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Galileo realised that the formation of these four satellites, whose eclipses are frequent and visible, provided a clock whose face could be seen from every point on the Earth. Tables describing the motion of the first four Jovian satellites to be discovered were used to determine longitude at sea and on land. Galileo’s method of determining longitude by observing the eclipses of Jovian satellites heralded a revolution in navigation, geodesy and cartography in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. GIOVE satellites A and B mark the start of in-orbit validation of this new system. They will be followed by four other satellites, to be launched in 2008. GIOVE and its four successors will pave the way for the deployment of the complete Galileo constellation of 30 satellites. According to the press release, this would provide unprecedented satellite positioning, navigation and timing capabilities in the Twenty-First Century. source:www.esa.int press release