Galileo Woes Continue

From - The Business UK

THE CONSORTIUM building the €2.3bn (£1.5bn, $2.9bn) European Galileo satellite will be dissolved in March unless it can resolve the infighting that has paralysed the project.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has issued an ultimatum to the eight aerospace and manufacturing companies who have failed to agree on how to divide up the work and missed deadlines.

Last week Jean-Jacques Dordain, the director general of ESA, which is funded by member states, announced a March deadline to determine whether to force the dissolution of the industrial consortium, which includes Britain’s Inmarsat, France’s Thales, and pan-European EADS.

A break-up of the group would be a significant blow as the firms struggle to create a rival to America’s Global Positioning System. The project involves launching a network of 30 satellites to orbit the earth. These will enable individuals to identify exactly where they are from any point by way of hardware that intercepts a radio signal; critics believe that the plan will also eventually have a military dimension, though this is denied by European officials.

The first satellite, which was supposed to be launched two years ago, remains grounded, and a further four are scheduled to be in orbit for 2009 but are likely to be delayed.

Last year Dordain launched three separate inquiries into the delays which were caused by Europe’s biggest aerospace hardware manufacturers failing to agree on sharing out the work, and failures with components.

The project has been plagued with problems. In June last year Britain’s future in Galileo was in jeopardy as two government departments argued over who should pay for the next financial instalment. The row between the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Transport over funding has since been resolved.

America has also been lukewarm over the system.