EU worried that China could upstage Galileo

EU worried that China could upstage Galileo
http://www.gnss.cc/2007/06/15/eu-worried-that-china-could-upstage-galileo/

by Martyn Warwick

A Czech member of the European Parliament (MEP), Vladimir Remek, says
the European Union (EU) must get the much-vaunted and oft-delayed
Galileo satellite GPS system off the drawing board and into orbit as
soon as possible or risk China getting there beforehand -- with the
consequent loss of billions of euros worth of investment and
revenues.

The project is falling further and further behind schedule while EU
officials prevaricate over how the system will operate and who will
eventually own it. One proposal even goes so far as to call for
public funding but private operation of the system.

Galileo is already years behind schedule as its consortium of private
backers bicker over deployment terms. The net result is that launch
of the satellite constellation, held up by Europe as a viable and
vitally necessary alternative to the US GPS system now in use, may
now be delayed until 2012. However, a proposed and strikingly similar
Chinese system may be put to orbit as early as next year.

Vladimir Remek, somewhat optimistically says,"At this point the delay
is still not a catastrophe, it's more of a a nuisance. A problem can
occur in this stage of a major project, that's not unheard of, but if
the protraction continues, it'll be a massive disgrace for Europe.
China is a phenomenon which the world has not quite grasped. If their
system is as professional as GPS and comes much cheaper, a European
one will not be necessary and Europe will continue to depend on
others."

Galileo was originally designed to rival (and in some instances even
replace) the US GPS constellation, which, post 9/11 offers a degraded
service because of concerns by the US military and the Bush
administration that it could be used by terrorists to pinpoint
strategic targets.

Galileo will comprise of a constellation of some 30 satellites of
which precisely one has been successfully launched to date.

Over the weekend another EU official broke ranks and weighed-in to
support of Mr. Remek. Wolfgand Tiefensee , the German transport
minister, said the private consortium tasked with manufacturing and
managing the deployment of Galileo has failed and that , as a direct
result, additional public fundingof ther project will now be
necessary. He says, "The concession-based model is heading nowhere.
For that reason we want to try out all the possibilities of public
sector financing including financing via the European Space Agency."

Herr Tiefensee adds that private funding remains a "possibility" but
declines to reveal how much of the official 3.66 billion euros budget
shortfall might be required to be covered by injections of public
cash. Independent estimates say the sums needed could easily top 8
billion euros.

If a decision is made to rescue the Galileo project with public
money, it would almost certainly come from the EU central budget
although some member states, including Germany, the Netherlands and
the UK are calling for individual EU member states to increase their
contributions to the European Space Agency.

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