The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union will decide this week whether to go ahead with the next stage of the European satellite navigation system Galileo.
Industry negotiators were late last week confident that a deal could be struck with their ESA counterparts by the weekend.
ESA has been demanding an €880 million ($1.16 billion) price tag, but European consortium Galileo Industries is adamant its offer of around €1 billion is more realistic. A price between the two was expected late last week.
"ESA has taken some extremely strong positions, and unreasonable ones in some instances, but we expect to reach something they can accept," one industry negotiator said last week. ESA is negotiating on behalf of the Brussels- based Galileo programme management organisation and European Commission-ESA joint venture, the Galileo Joint Undertaking.
Source: Flight International