ESA Orders first 30 GALILEO Satellites

The European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA) initiated the procurement process for the first 30 dedicated navigation satellites under the GALILEO program. The European Parliament and the Council have allocated a budget of € 3.4 billion for the European satellite navigation programmes EGNOS and Galileo for the period 2007-2013 and provided for an agreement on the governance structure of the programmes. This revised framework provides for the deployment of the full operational capability (FOC) of Galileo under a public procurement scheme, entirely financed out of the EU budget.


By 2013 Galileo is expected to be supporting five main services, namely the Open Service, the Safety of Life Service, the Commercial Service, the Public Regulated Service, and the Search and Rescue Service.http://emits.esa.inthttp://www.europa.eu