SpaceX has signed a contract to loft up to four of Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites over two launches in 2024.

The deal, which Elon Musk‘s company inked recently with the European Space Agency, calls for the Galileo satellites to launch atop Falcon 9 rockets from U.S. soil, is what the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday 23rd of October.

“The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, along with EU member states, must still give final approval for the deal,” The Journal wrote. “That is likely to happen before the end of the year, officials said.“

The upcoming missions will mark the first time that SpaceX launches EU satellites carrying classified equipment, The Journal noted, and the first time in 15 years that Galileo spacecraft launch from a non-European territory. (Recent missions have lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guyana.) 

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