Julian Moxon/BRUSSELS
Europe has launched the Galileo second-generation global satellite-navigation system after receiving strong financial commitments from European Space Agency (ESA) nations at the ESA ministerial meeting in Brussels on 11-12 May.
The joint ESA/European Union (EU) Galileo programme has firmed up only recently, as it has become clear that the USA intends to improve further its military global positioning system for commercial applications. An EU meeting in June is expected to endorse the ESA decision, which agreed to provide 58.4 million euros ($63 million) to the end of 2001 for programme definition. A further 178 million euros has been made available for development up to 2006.
At the meeting, described as "highly successful" by council chairman and UK space minister Lord Sainsbury, ESA council ministers agreed to fund other major programmes, including multimedia applications, which promise major commercial benefits.
The meeting was acrimonious at times, however, with member states suffering tight budgetary constraints jockeying for favoured programmes, while attempting to cut support for others with less obvious national benefit. Italy and France, for example, only settled their differences over the Vega small-satellite programme after Belgian mediation bought a deal calling for "further technical evaluations" up to October. Funding of the second step is only "envisaged".
Development of the Ariane 5 launcher, due for its crucial first commercial launch in early July, secured funding at slightly below the ESA request, at 533 million euros for the Ariane 5 Plus programme until 2001. A further 25 million euros went to infrastructure and 134 million euros for work to ensure that the launcher remains competitive. The ministers also decided that Ariane 5 development costs should be cut by 10%.
Funding for ESA's space science programme was increased slightly, with 1,460 million euros allocated from 1999-2002. The Mars Express and Planck missions, were fully funded. The Living Planet earth-observation programme was also given strong support, with 295 million euros' funding to the end of 2002.
Funding for the International Space Station was cut from the 344 million euros requested by ESA to 298.5 million euros through to 2001, following pressure from Germany which is hampered by the previous Government's commitment to a 41% share of the ESA contribution. "I would not have joined at that level," says German space minister Edelgard Bulmahn.
Calls from French space minister Claude Allègre to change the ESA operating system from one in which decisions are taken unanimously to one where only a "qualified majority" is required, appear to have failed to make the agenda.
The ministers welcome the report and action plan of the Long-term Space Policy Committee, which identified strategic independence, planetary management and expansion beyond the present horizons as the major challenges that Europe faces in space in the new millennium. The report includes an action plan of 20 initiatives to allow Europe to secure a leading position in the face of international competition.
Source: Flight International
