Good morning, Kourou,
Good morning, Paris,
And good morning all of you here in Brussels.
Its always an exciting moment. But the wait is over - Ariane has launched.
This is a massive achievement! And this is good news for all.
We all use Galileo, in our phones and cars. 4.5 billion people connect to Galileo every day. Thats more than half the population, of the world! Galileo helps Cars to drive automatically. Helps farmers to grow food. Helps ships to navigate. Helps to save lives at sea. And brings many more benefits from space, right here on Earth.
Galileo is already the best satellite navigation system in the world. And soon Galileo will get even better - once these two new satellites are fully operational. Galileo will be stronger and always available.
Were expanding and renewing the Galileo constellation. Ensuring global coverage and operational capability. More satellites in the sky means a more robust, more reliable signal.
Todays launch ends a year of successful launches.
And thats important for another reason:
We are at the start of a space revolution. Europes future in space, our strategic autonomy on Earth, depends on our access to space. To benefit from space, we first need to get to space.
So I thank all involved!
All of you over there, at the European Spaceport.
And everyone here, who made this possible.
The European Space Agency, EUSPA,
Arianespace, and my colleagues here at the European Commission.
Thank you all of you!