EU satnav finally gets off ground a day late

A RUSSIAN rocket launched the first two satellites of the European Union’s Galileo navigation system yesterday after years of delay in an ambitious bid to rival the American GPS network.

The launch of the Soyuz from French Guiana, on the northern coast of South America, marks the maiden voyage of the Russian rocket outside the former Soviet Union, with European and Russian officials cheering at lift-off after the launch had been pushed back by a day.

Russia’s deputy premier Sergei Ivanov said it was the first time the two teams had worked together to launch a Soyuz.

“We have been able to combine the best space know-how of both governments, that of France and that of Russia,” he said. “I am convinced that will yield us good results.”

Galileo has become for some a symbol of EU infighting, inefficiency and delay. Now, officials are hoping it will kick off a transatlantic competition with the US-run GPS network.

Antonio Tajani, the EU’s industry and enterprise commissioner, even linked it to Sunday’s crucial summit of EU leaders struggling to end the eurozone crisis.

“Europe shows that she is capable of managing a big project just days from the European economic summit,” he said.

The rocket is expected to place into orbit the Galileo IOV-1 PFM and FM2 satellites during a nearly four-hour mission. The two satellites will be released in opposite directions.

The mission was delayed for 24 hours because of a leaky valve, and there was much relief at EU headquarters yesterday that the project was finally launched into space.

GPS has become the world standard in satellite navigation over the past decade.

Laurent Wauquiez, France’s higher education minister, said Europe should not depend on a US military-based GPS system that could be shut down at any time for security reasons.

“It means overnight we could lose our autonomy,” he said. “There is an issue of sovereignty. We must not neglect this even in a period of globalisation.”

The EU wants Galileo to dominate the future with a system that is more precise and more reliable than GPS, while controlled by civil authorities. It foresees applications ranging from precision seeding on farmland to pinpoint positioning for search-and-rescue missions. On top of that, the EU hopes it will reap a financial windfall.

“If Europe wants to be competitive and independent it needs to have its own satellite navigation system to also create new economic opportunities”, said Herbert Reul, head of the EU parliament’s industry, research and energy committee.

There are still several more years to wait, but the satellite launch is a major step in getting Galileo on track. It will start operating in 2014 as a free navigation service, with more specialised services to be rolled out until 2020, when it should be fully operational. After the initial launch, two satellites will go up every quarter as of the end of 2012 until all 30 satellites are up.

The EU hopes it will make the equivalent of €90 billion (£78bn) in industrial revenues and public benefits over the next two decades.

The European Commission said development and deployment costs since 2003 are estimated at well over £4.3bn.

Maintaining and completing the system is expected to cost around £870,000 a year.