Sufficient savings have been found in Europe's Galileo sat-nav project for at least six additional spacecraft to be bought for the system before 2014.
It would take Europe's version of GPS from 18 operational satellites in the next few years to 24.
This should make a big difference to Galileo's performance.
It should also hasten the eventual completion date.
The announcement was made at the Paris Air Show by European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, who has overall responsibility in Brussels for the flagship EU space project.
"It is possible to reduce not only the cost but also the timing," he said. "And by reducing the timing, we reduce the cost. This is a very good cocktail - cost and timing together."
Mr Tajani was at Le Bourget aerodrome to sign the last two industrial contracts needed to make Europe's satellite-navigation venture a reality.
The combined valued of these two agreements is 355m euros. They are both concerned with ground operations.
One (281m euros) is with Thales Alenia Space of France, who will be tasked with looking after Galileo's timing and navigation data, ensuring it is properly formatted for transmission by the satellites.
The other contract (73.5m euros) is going to Astrium-UK. Their work will ensure the good "housekeeping" of the satellites, including the maintenance and correct positioning of the spacecraft in orbit.
But it was the news that Mr Tajani had managed to find major economies in the project that dominated discussions at Le Bourget.
BBC News - Europe's Galileo sat-nav in big cash boost
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment