RUSSIA: The European Union launched its first Galileo navigation satellite yesterday, moving to challenge the US Global Positioning System (GPS).
Russian space agency Roskosmos said the 600kg (1,300lb) satellite Giove-A (Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element) went into its orbit 23,000km (15,000 miles) from the earth after its launch on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the middle of Kazakhstan's steppe.
The €3.6 billion Galileo programme, due to go into service in 2008 and eventually deploy 30 satellites, may end Europe's reliance on the GPS and offer a commercial alternative to the GPS system run by the US military.
"Radio navigation based on Galileo will be a feature of everyday life, helping to avoid traffic jams and tracking dangerous cargos," said EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot.
The GPS is currently the only worldwide system offering services ranging from driver assistance to search-and-rescue help. Critics say its services for civilians offer less precision than those for military purposes.
Galileo's accuracy in positioning is to be one metre (three feet) or less, while the GPS's precision is more than five metres.
If successful, the satellite will mark a major step in Europe's biggest-ever space programme, involving firms such as European aerospace giant EADS, France's Thales and Alcatel, Britain's Inmarsat, Italy's Finmeccanica and Spain's AENA and Hispasat.
Galileo's critics say it is an unnecessary exercise in political grandeur, and unlikely to be commercially viable as GPS is free and will soon be upgraded.
But advocates point to its future role in Europe's new air-traffic system and to plans to integrate it with mobile telephone services, which should provide ample business opportunities.
Galileo could become the symbol of success that Europe needs at a time of economic stagnation and political rifts.
The system will be organised as a public-private partnership, with the European Commission wanting two-thirds of the funding to come from industry and the rest from public coffers.
Galileo, developed with the help of several non-European countries including Ukraine, Israel and China, will create about 140,000 jobs in Europe.
The EU and the US clinched a deal last year, making Galileo compatible with the GPS.
Washington had been initially unhappy about Galileo, saying it could pose a security threat as its signals could interfere with those of the next-generation GPS.
The Giove-A satellite will test key new technologies such as on-board atomic clocks, signal-generators and user-receivers.
A second satellite, Giove-B, is to be launched in the spring.
(Additional reporting by Marcin Grajewski in Brussels) - (Reuters)