THE European Union has blinked first in its tussle with the US over operating frequencies for its Galileo satellite navigation system. Last Saturday, the EU agreed to make Galileo compatible with its US counterpart, the Global Positioning System (GPS). But uncertainty continues over how Europe will finance the project.
The 30 satellites in Galileo鈥檚 fleet were originally planned to operate at frequencies that GPS sets aside for military use. During times of war, the Pentagon can jam civilian GPS frequencies, but it would not have been able to jam Galileo without interfering with the GPS signal used by American troops.
Galileo will now use different frequencies, even though this will make it less precise. 鈥淚n the end, Europe moved,鈥� says Mike Healy from EADS Astrium UK, which will build parts of the satellites. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 the absolute optimum solution that Europe wanted, but it was close enough.鈥� Now he says the EU must work out how it will pay for the first four satellites, due to be launched by 2007. The EU is about 鈧�300 million short.
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