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2011-06-22 11:49:27
By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News, Paris
Sufficient savings have been found in Europe's Galileo sat-nav project for at
least six additional spacecraft to be bought for the system before 2014.
The BBC understands 500m euros ( 440m) will become available to make the extra
purchase, taking Europe's version of GPS from 18 operational satellites in the
next few years to 24.
This should make a big difference to Galileo's performance.
The announcement will be made at the Paris Air Show on Wednesday.
It will come from European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, who has
overall responsibility in Brussels for the flagship EU space project.
He is using the event at Le Bourget aerodrome to sign the last two industrial
contracts needed to make Europe's satellite-navigation venture a reality.
The combined valued of these two agreements is 355m euros. They are both
concerned with ground operations.
One (281m euros) is with Thales Alenia Space of France, who will be tasked with
looking after Galileo's timing and navigation data, ensuring it is properly
formatted for transmission by the satellites.
The other contract (73.5m euros) is going to Astrium-UK. Their work will ensure
the good "housekeeping" of the satellites, including the maintenance and
correct positioning of the spacecraft in orbit.
But it is the news that Mr Tajani has managed to find major economies in the
project that will likely make headlines at Le Bourget.
GALILEO UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Galileo constellation (Esa)
A project of the European Commission and the European Space Agency
Some 30 satellites are likely to be launched in batches in the coming years
Galileo will work alongside the US GPS and the Russian Glonass sat-nav systems
Europe's system promises real-time positioning down to less than a metre
The much-delayed Galileo initiative has been under constant fire from critics
for its cost.
EU member states had already committed 3.4bn euros to get 18 satellites into
orbit by the end of 2014, and were told recently they might have to find a
further 1.9bn to get a completed "constellation" of 30 satellites later in the
decade.
The British government in particular has vociferously argued against any
further funding, even though UK national companies are likely to be among the
main beneficiaries.
London will be delighted to hear that Mr Tajani has now been able to rein in
expected future expenditure.
Mr Tajani will tell the Paris Air Show event that the savings are thanks to the
extra efforts made by industry to curb costs and from an improvement in the
management of project resources as a whole.
The timing is critical. It means Mr Tajani has cash available before the next
EU budget, or Financial Perspective, to purchase more satellites.
The first two Galileo spacecraft are due to go into orbit in October, launched
on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana. They will be followed by a
further pair in 2012.
Another 14 are under construction, with the last satellite in this series due
to roll off the production line in mid-2014. That would make 18 in total in
orbit by 2015.
But Mr Tajani now has it within his power to maintain the pace of construction,
either by asking the current contractor (OHB-System of Germany) to continue its
production run, or by turning to the back-up supplier (Astrium) to produce the
additional satellites in parallel.
Antonio Tajani Mr Tajani should not now have to ask for the entire 1.9bn euros
in the next EU budget
Six additional satellites, making a total of 24, would take Galileo very close
to full capability in 2015.
It assumes of course that sufficient rockets can be found to launch the extra
satellites in that timeframe; and that there are no launch failures or
malfunctions in the spacecraft themselves once they arrive in orbit. Were these
problems to arise, the newly-found budget opportunity could rapidly evaporate.
The savings mean also that EU member states will be asked for less money for
Galileo in the next Financial Perspective.
Galileo is expected to improve substantially the availability and accuracy of
timing signals delivered from space.
Its next-generation technologies should enable users to get quicker, more
reliable fixes and be able to locate their positions with an error of one
metre, compared with the current GPS error of several metres.
There ought to be particular benefits too in those locations where GPS signals
currently struggle to penetrate, such as in high-rise cities.
With Galileo working alongside the American system, the performance
improvements should see sat-nav work well in even the deepest of "urban
canyons".