EU, Morocco seal deal on Galileo
The European Union (EU) and Morocco signed an agreement in Brussels for cooperation on the European satellite radio navigation program Galileo. The two sides will join hands in a wide range of activities, including scientific research and training, industrial cooperation, trade and market development, standards, certification and regulatory measures. Morocco is the seventh international partner of the EU on the Galileo global positioning system. The 25- nation bloc has signed cooperation agreements with the United States, China, Israel, Ukraine, India and South Korea.

Ukraine might take part in European Space Program
During public hearings of a draft national space program for 2007 – 2011, Deputy Director General of the National Space Agency of Ukraine Eduard Kuznetsov said that some projects of the program might be included into the first European space program, which is presently being drafted, “Cabinet’s press office” reported. Among the projects he first of all mentioned creating a space Ionosat system for comprehensive study of seismic-ionospheric and solar- Earth connections and their impact on technological and biological processes on the Earth. The program is supposed to start in 2010. Among the program’s likely participants were named Poland, Turkey and China. http://en.for-ua.com

EU’s transport chief eyes military use for satellite system
The European Union should consider employing its Galileo satellite navigation program for military uses in addition to the civilian purposes for which it was designed, the EU’s transport chief said. “Galileo was supposed to be a civilian system only but I wonder whether we shouldn’t question that,” Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot told a conference in Luxembourg. “Using it for military purposes, for defence purposes … would be very interesting in terms of paying for the infrastructure and the
investment,” he said of the multi-billioneuro project.
www.defensenews.com

EU and the Republic of Korea seal their agreement
During the EU/South Korea summit held in Helsinki, the two parties formally signed an agreement on cooperation on the European satellite radio navigation programme GALILEO. The agreement provides for numerous areas of co-operation, including cooperative activities in the areas of scientific research and training, industrial cooperation, trade and market development, standards, certification and regulatory measures. http://europa.eu.int

German government makes funds available for Galileo development work
The German federal government will provide funds to the tune of 2.5 million Euros for research and development work in Rostock on the European satellitebased navigation system Galileo.
In the course of a visit to the Rostockbased technology company RST, Wolfgang Tiefensee, the Federal Minister responsible for promoting the industries of the eastern federal states that used to make up the German Democratic Republic, said that the groundwork R&D in the field of aerospace technology carried out by companies in Mecklenburg West-Pomerania was of an outstanding quality. Substantial funds would now be invested in Galileo application research, he added.
Within the context of research undertaken by RST, four transmitters will be set up in the port of Rostock capable of giving off Galileo signals. During the test phase the signals, which allow the receiver to pinpoint the position of the sender exactly, will be picked up by a ship of the ferry line Scandlines. www.heise.de

Five Nation Consortium focuses on receivers for Galileo GPS system
British consultancy PA Consulting Group, London, is to lead a five nation consortium to look into the enabling technologies needed to develop receivers for Europe’s Galileo GPS location based system. The two year project, funded to the tune of Euros 6 million by the European Commission through grants from the sixth Framework Programme, is dubbed GREAT, for Galileo REceiver for the mAss market. The Consortium comprises Spanish group Acorde, a specialst in RF design for satellite and communications systems; German Aerospace Center DLR, the Tampere University of Technology, specifically the Finnish University’s group specializing in algorithm design for GNSS systems; and u-blox AG – a Swiss fabless developer and manufacturer of GPS chipsets and GPS receiver modules. The project will comprise three distinct phases – core technology development, prototyping and testing – achieving major blocks of demonstrable baseband IP that, the group says, will allow further developments to be kick-started. Initial target of the project is the development of front-end RF designs, as well as the algorithms and baseband technology to allow the Galileo signal to be used in indoor locations. www.eetimes.com

Galileo already over budget
Galileo Joint Undertaking, the organisation leading European development of a global satellite navigation system, has admitted it is already €404 million ($513 million) over budget, mainly due to miscalculating the cost of building and launching two technology pathfinder spacecraft, the first of which, GIOVE-A, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in December. The total budget for the Galileo programme, which will comprise 30 operational satellites, will be about €4.5 billion, of which €1.5 billion has already been spent. Initially, a foursatellite constellation of operational spacecraft will be launched.
www.flightglobal.com

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Galileo – the European Programme for Global Navigation …

Galileo – the European Programme for Global Navigation Services for civil purposes is an initiative led by European Union. We provide regular updates to our readers on the Galileo programme.
Galileo OS SIS ICD now available on-line The information contained in the Galileo Open Service Signal In Space Interface Control Document (SIS ICD) is made available to the public by the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU), an undertaking jointly created by the European Commission and the European Space Agency. www.galileoju.com

Galileo to be scaled down?
The Financial Times claims the EU may be forced to operate the Galileo constellation with fewer than the currently proposed 30 satellites. The FT quotes Philippe Busquin, a former European research commissioner who now oversees the Galileo project as a member of the European Parliament as saying: ‘It’s not clear that we really need 30 satellites. We could certainly make Galileo a success with 24 or 25.’ Jack Metthey, a director handling research in the European Commission, also describes the Galileo budget situation as ‘very, very tight’, adding: ‘Having less satellites would certainly help address the money issue.’’ However, it is acknowledged that a reduction in the number of satellites could undermine the quality of the system, by reducing coverage and precision, two of Galileo’s trump cards as a 21st- Century constellation. www.rin.org.uk