The battle lines between tomorrow's GPS systems are being drawn today - and Europe's Galileo system has key advantages, say German researchers. "The European satellite navigation system Galileo will start providing services by the end of 2014 and offer, for instance, search and rescue services, and public regulated services by the end of 2014", European Commission Vice President, Antonio Tajani, said at the official opening of the European GNSS Agency (GSA) headquarters in Prague recently.
Full operations will be available at the turn of 2019 and 2020 and at least 18 out of a total of 30 satellites will already be in orbit by 2014. Two satellites are available at the moment and another two will be added on October 10.
The €20 billion project is named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. One of the aims of Galileo is to provide an independent high-precision positioning system upon which European nations can rely, independently from the Russian GLONASS, US GPS, and Chinese Compass systems, which are controlled by the military and can be disabled in times of war or conflict.
EU-Digest
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