InfrastructureEuropeans conduct final test of Galileo

The European Union on Sunday launched the second and final test satellite for its $5.3 billion rival to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), brushing off industry doubts over its viability. The Galileo project, Europe’s biggest single space program, has been hobbled by delays and squabbling over funding that ended only when the twenty-seven-nation EU agreed to funnel public funds into it. The experimental satellite, Giove-B, was put into orbit by a Soyuz rocket in Kazakhstan and will test Galileo’s core technologies such as a high-precision atomic clock and the triple-channel transmission of navigation signals, the European Commission said. “[Galileo] will be operational in 2013 and already we think this will be profitable,” EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot said after monitoring the launch from the Fucino control center in the hills of central Italy. The full system will consist of thirty satellites. Galileo’s first experimental satellite was launched in December 2005, but doubts have accompanied the project from the beginning, with critics pointing to the dominant position of the U.S. GPS and similar projects planned by Russia and China. Critics have also labeled it too expensive, despite the EU commission arguing that it would create thousands of jobs and ensure independence from the U.S. service. Barrot played down those squabbles, saying the market for personal navigation devices was booming and the new system would appeal to a wide range of sectors ranging from transport to construction. Russia and China are also interested in cooperating to develop some technology jointly with their planned new positioning systems, Barrot said.

The number of personal navigation devices sold last year jumped five-fold from 2005 and the European market is expected to be worth €135 billion by 2025, the EU says. Private companies have been less enthusiastic about the project, however, and a consortium that included France’s EADS and Thales and Italy’s Finmeccanica pulled out of it in 2007 because they doubted it could be profitable. This forced the EU to agree to divert unused public funds to plug a €2.4 billion shortfall. EU transport ministers gave Galileo the final green light earlier this month, giving the European parliament more say in how it is run and opening the way for companies to tender for contracts worth billions of euros.