European GPS: Second test satellite for Galileo launched, reaches orbit
A second experimental Giove-B satellite for the EU's Galileo satellite navigation project was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early Sunday.The satellite, a 500-kilogram cube constructed by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, is to take over from the first test satellite Giove-A, launched in December 2005. Giove-B contains an atomic clock, the most precise on Earth but never before sent into space, which falls behind by less than a nanosecond a day. The precision is particularly important for the localisation system, which is based on the calculation of time that passes between the emission and signal reception.
The long-delayed European project is meant to challenge the dominance of the US-built Global Positioning System (GPS), which is widely used in satellite navigation devices in vehicles and ships. The two experimental satellites are to be followed, some time later, by some 30 satellites placed in permanent orbit at an altitude of 20,000 kilometres (12,400 miles).
Europe's Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot, in an interview with French Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, called Galileo "a tool of sovereignty for Europe." He said: "We can no longer live in a world that is more and more dependent on global positioning while remaining reliant on one single American system. It is evident, Galileo is a tool of sovereignty for Europe."
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