More Galileo Delays - GLONASS Looking Better and Better...

Launch Of Second Galileo Test Satellite Delayed Until 2007

Galileo's test satellite GIOVE-A shows off it's solar arrays.
by Staff Writers
Frankfurt (AFP) Sep 12, 2006
Galileo, the navigation system that Europe hopes will rival the reigning US GPS network, is experiencing delays, with the launch of the second test satellite, GIOVE-B, set back several months, the Financial Times Deutschland quoted a company spokesman as saying on Monday.
"The launch is now planned for spring 2007," the spokesman for Galileo Industries was quoted by the newspaper as saying. Initially planned for spring of 2006, the launch of the GIOVE-B test satellite had already been postponed until this autumn. FT Deutschland said the renewed delay was due to technical problems connected with components. But they had nothing to do with the atomic clock that the satellite was equipped with, it added.

The first Galileo test satellite, GIOVE-A, blasted off from Kazakhstan on a Russian rocket last December.

The spokesman insisted that the new delay would not affect the deployment of the Galileo system.


Source: Agence France-Presse