EU Space Agency to sign Galileo contract on Jan. 19

PARIS (Reuters) – The European Space Agency will sign a
contract next week with Galileo Industries that will bring the
EU’s Galileo navigation satellite closer to challenging the
U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS).

The contract, worth 950 million euros ($1.153 billion),
will be formally signed in Berlin on January 19, less than a
month after the EU launched its first Galileo satellite, named
Giove-A (Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element), ESA said on
Saturday.

The Giove-A satellite will test new technologies such as
on-board atomic clocks, signal generators and user receivers.
The second, Giove-B satellite is to be launched in the spring.

The contract that will be signed in Berlin is for the next
phase of the program, which sees four other satellites, the
minimum needed to ensure precision positioning over selected
showcase sites, backed by network of ground stations.

The full 3.6 billion euro Galileo program, due to go into
service in 2008 and eventually deploy 30 satellites, may end
Europe’s reliance on the GPS and offer a commercial alternative
to the GPS system run by the U.S. military.

“The signature of this contract is a major milestone for
the realization of this unique European technology program,”
Guenter Stamerjohanns, chief executive offer of Galileo
Industries, the European company steering a consortium of more
than 100 firms, said in a statement.

Representatives from industries involved in the project,
such as EADS, Alcatel, Finmeccanica, and Thales are due to
attend the signing ceremony, which will take place at the
German Federal Ministry of Transport in Berlin.