Germany and Italy have settled their dispute over the division of responsibility for Europe's Galileo navigation satellite system, allowing the €3.2 billion ($3.4 billion) programme to proceed into development. The dispute had threatened plans for the 30-satellite constellation to enter commercial operation in 2008.
Galileo Industries, the consortium responsible for developing the system, will have headquarters in Germany. EADS Astrium will appoint the chief executive, while Italy's Alenia Spazio will have a deputy chief executive and control of the four main contracts. Germany will be responsible for the space segment, while Italy will focus on system engineering.
The agreement still needs to be approved by the other participating countries, after which contracts will be shared out.
The European Space Agency is now expected to release €550 million for the development and validation phase. The European Union has started releasing its €550 million contribution to keep the programme on track. Development will culminate with the launch of two prototype satellites in 2005 for in-orbit validation of the system.
Full deployment of the constellation in 2006-7 will be carried out, and largely funded, by a concession holder. A call for expressions of interest was issued in late February, with the Galileo concession to be awarded in 2004. The estimated €220 million annual operation cost is to be recovered through user fees and receiver royalties.
Galileo will provide four core position, velocity and time services. Open service, equivalent to civil GPS, is aimed at mass-market users, while paid-for commercial service is intended for professional users. Aviation will use the high-integrity, dual-frequency "safety-of-life" service. Public regulated service is equivalent to military GPS.
The European Commission intends to select a commercial operator to take over EGNOS, Europe's space-based augmentation system for GPS, when it becomes fully operational in June next year. The EC has proposed integrating the two programmes in a bid to help Galileo penetrate a worldwide satellite navigation market expected to total 1.8 billion users by 2010 and 3.6 billion by 2020.
* Russia is to launch three Glonass/Uragan navigation satellites in June, one an uprated Glonass B/Uragan M spacecraft. Three more Uragans will be launched later this year, and Russia hopes to have 24 Glonass satellites in orbit by 2004, including the first uprated Uragan Ks.
Source: Flight International
