Supplementary funding issue divides partners as cash for programme starts to dry up
Work on the European Galileo navigational satellite programme could be suspended if four of the national partners continue to block agreement over industrial workshare linked to cost increases, says the European Space Agency.
Finland, Germany, Spain and the UK are blocking a vote to resolve the issue of supplementary funding for the Galileo programme, the cost of which has increased from €1.1 billion to €1.5 billion ($1.32 billion to $1.81 billion).
Half of the extra €400 million is being provided by the European Commission and the rest has to come from the Galileo partners.
A meeting planned for late August (Flight International, 9-15 August) was cancelled and a subsequent meeting on 13 September saw no progress. Another chance will come at the ESA Council meeting on 13 October.
Failure, says an ESA source, will mean “we will have to reconsider the situation very seriously as there is only enough money to support the work for a few more weeks”.
He says one of the options will be “to freeze the programme until we have agreement”.
A source within the UK Industrial Space Committee confirms that failure to resolve the issue in October could be “disastrous”, but adds: “We’re optimistic. The brinkmanship has gone far enough. None of us wants to be the only one blocking the programme.”
The source adds that the extra funding “must be there by Christmas, or there is a real danger the programme could stall”.
JULIAN MOXON/LONDON
Source: Flight International