William Atkins
Thursday, 07 January 2010 20:23
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
On Thursday, January 7, 2010, the European Union's European Commission awarded over US$1.44 billion (1 billion euros) to European companies in order to assure the Galileo global satellite navigation system is up and running by 2014. The progress of Galileo has been sluggish over the years, which has prompted this action.
The European Commission, which is the executive portion of the European Union, stated that repeated delays in the project over the years have hindered the progress of the Galileo satellite navigational system.
However, it is now confident that these contracts will allow the system to be operational in 2014.
At that time, the Galileo system will be in competition with the U.S. based Global Positioning System (GPS).
As a major portion of the monies contracted out, the German aerospace-technology company OHB-System AG, which is within OHB Technology AG (
OHBG.DE), received just about US$815 million (566 million euros) to build fourteen satellites for the Galileo system.
In addition, Arianespace (
EAD.PA) was awarded approximately US$572 million (397 million euros) for services entailing the launching of the satellites (two per launch) with Russian Soyuz rockets.
The rockets and satellite-payloads will be launched from Arianespace’s launching site Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, a country on the northern coast of South America.
Page two continues with information on the awarding of support services for the Galileo project.
