Fate of European Union GPS Alternative Galileo Hangs in Balance

It seems that Europe is worried about the United States Global Positioning System. Not that they're afraid it may fall out of the sky. They are afraid that the U.S. government may just decide to stop using it for no good reason one day. So they decided to make their own.

It's called the Galileo satnav system. There are 30 satellites-or there will be, if the thing ever gets built. The European Union put together a conglomerate of eight corporations that were all supposed to give birth to a ninth coporation, the sole purpose of which was supposed to be the mama for baby Galileo. However, the eight have not been able to see eye-to-eye and, after two years, there is no mama corporation. That's what you get when you put the butt before the nose-a baby with no mama.

The European Union is trying to figure out what to do about the situation. They have three choices-fund the project completely, fund it partially or abort the whole thing. Taking over the project completely will cost them almost 2 billion Euro. They budgeted only !.5 billion for the 2007-13 budgetary period.

German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee assures everyone that things will be settled at the next meeting of the Eurpean Union.

However, some damage has already been done, as this is a "time is money" situation in the worst way. The European Union had to order a satellite it didn't plan to order, so that it could be a placeholder for Galileo, whose satellites are nowhere near ready for launch. If the Galileo project didn't get a satellite into orbit in time, it would have lost its frequency allocations. And, since the project may wind up being as much as three years off schedule due to the political infighting of the eight corporations (just for the record, at least some of them blame Spain)...well...things could get pretty costly.

The EU told the eight that it would not even speak with them until the eight became one. That hasn't happened, so it looks like the European Union will be taking things into their own hands pretty soon.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Russia is expected to have 18 spacecraft in orbit by the end of the year. China may be thinking about going its own way too, even though it has given money to the Galileo project. It has it's own 30 satellite network which has been the military's little toy, but which is now going to be opened up for use by others. Their delegate also missed an important Galileo meeting. ###