Slashgeo

Vector One has an interesting blog entry about why GALILEO is much more than about sovereignty. From the entry's introduction: "GALILEO is more than politics alone, it aims to capitalise upon the convergence of geotechnology developement and awareness. Other benefits dovetail with current European Commission goals associated with transportation. Lastly, GALILEO will serve as a deeper conduit that promotes pan-European education agenda while increasing synergy between countries and industry. GALILEO has everything to do with pro-European development."

Konquest writes "The second satellite part of the Galileo system was due for launch this spring. However, the mission managers are confident they now have enough data from the first satellite, Giove-A, to secure the network's allocated frequencies. So they decided to push back the launch to this autumn. The launch of the first Galileo satellite occurred late last year, on December 28th."

konquest writes "GIOVE-A, the first satellite in the Galileo system has successfully communicated with Earth, after its launch on December 28th." Our previous story on the launch. Slashdot also covers the story and provide a link to the BBC News.

The Press Release states the first satellite in the EU's Galileo satellite navigation program was launched from Kazakhstan on Wednesday, a major step forward for Europe's answer to the United States' Global Positioning System. Very Spatial points to two BBC News articles about it. While the Think blog discuss how Galileo will make any money, linking to Ed's blog entry on this issue.

Directions Mag reports the state of global navigation satellite systems with a focus on India. From the article: "While many western countries are already in the saturation stage, India is still in the introductory stage. India has its own technology to launch its own satellites but it has not made an effort sufficient to create awareness about the use of GPS in day-to-day activities. [...] New satellite navigation systems - the European Union’s Galileo, Russia’s GLONASS, Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, and China’s Twinstar - are going up. The speakers talked about the use of GNSS and of various augmentation systems in use and those which are being planned." There's also 6 India-related previous stories linked below.

GeoCarta links to an article about the European Galileo project halted by serious problems. From the article: "Plans to launch a European satellite navigation system to rival the US global positioning system have ground to a halt following a break down in relations between governments and private contractors. Jacques Barrot, the transport commissioner, said on Wednesday he was writing to the eight companies building the Galileo system to discover the reason for more than a year's delay. "They are just not working," said his spokesman. [...] There were originally to be 30 satellites in place by 2010 but Mr Barrot's spokesman said the system would not be operational until 2011, and the timetable was slipping by the day. China recently said its Beidou system would cover China and its neighbours by 2008, and then the rest of the world." See also the numerous related stories below.

Slashdot runs a story about Europe's Galileo program in serious trouble. Vector One also provides interesting analysis of Galileo's status. The Slashdot summary: "Various news outlets are reporting that Europe's Galileo program is facing a serious financial and technical crisis and may be permanently stalled. The European program, designed to be a superior answer to the US's GPS — and, more critically, not controlled by the US — has faced numerous hurdles since its inception. To date the Galileo program has succeeded in launching only one of its 30 planned satellites and has been beset by delays and cost overruns. Apparently, squabbling between the eight companies in the consortium behind the project is responsible for many of the problems. The project is now threatened with an EU takeover. But some doubt that even an infusion of EU capital can save the flagging program." See previous stories below about the problems.