Further delay could kill programme, says EADS Astrium chief, as troubled European network hits Brussels buffer
The European space industry fears for the future of the Galileo satellite navigation system as a decision in 2007 for the project's public financing looks unlikely.
Following a May recommendation by the European Commission to its transport ministers' council to cancel the public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement that existed for Galileo, a decision on how the programme would be financed only by the EU member states was expected by October.
A fully publicly funded Galileo means the EU states have to find about €400 million ($555 million) a year more in total for its development and deployment, to replace the lost private financing.
Although the project has one test satellite in orbit, another being prepared for launch a year late, and a back-up spacecraft being built in the UK, the timetable for the 30-satellite constellation is effectively frozen.
Originally scheduled for 2008, Galileo's operational target date is now 2013.
Europe's space industry, which has been part of new financing arrangement discussions with the European Space Agency and the European Commission, fears a substantial delay if there is no decision on how to manage an EU-funded Galileo in the next quarter.
A June resolution by the transport ministers said that the council would decide how to implement the new arrangement in "early autumn 2007".
"Today there is no solution with the EU. A solution needs to be found. If we start from scratch, we will have another three to four year delay. That could kill the programme," says EADS Astrium chief executive Francois Auque.
Speaking at the first Council of the European Aeronautical Societies' European air and space conference on 13 September, Auque added that the programme's participating governments must "stop interfering" in a pan-European industry that he described as having reached an "optimal balance".
A publicly funded programme could see ESA manage the development and construction of the navigation spacecraft and arrange their deployment through European launch provider Arianespace. However, the difficulty is the political nature of the division of spacecraft development and construction contracts between Galileo's participating states' companies.
Galileo began as a PPP with a procurement contest between two consortia, one involving EADS, the other Finmeccanica.
That procurement process failed and an attempt by the project's supervisory bodies to agree a contract for deployment and management with an industrial entity that combined the two previous consortia ended without a deal.
On 14 September, UK company Surrey Satellite Technology, which built Galileo's first test satellite and its back-up spacecraft, Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element-A2, announced that it would be seeking partners to form a team to compete for Galileo work.
Source: Flight International
