Originally published January 22 2006
Europe's Galileo navigation satellite set to launch
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The first of 30 navigation satellites (part of a multi-billion dollar system called Galileo) is scheduled launch. Galileo has caused alarm and suspicion from the U.S. because of the potential defense applications.
The first of Europe's constellation of 30 navigation satellites -- part of a multibillion-dollar system called Galileo -- is due to blast into orbit from Kazakstan tomorrow.
(600 kg), British built satellite on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome will mark the start of the European Commission and the European Space Agency's most ambitious technical and scientific venture, organizers said. GPS Rival
The Galileo project, which is designed to rival America's Global Positioning System, aims to revolutionize industries, including transportation, and will be used in maritime, rail and other navigation systems.
With a host of applications in areas such as fisheries, agriculture, oil prospecting, building and telecommunications, Galileo is expected to create more than 140,000 jobs in Europe and to generate US$237 billion (200 billion euros; pounds 140 billion) in services per year by 2013.
Some of Europe's biggest technology firms are behind the project, having won the right to operate the 30 satellites circling the globe in three orbits at an altitude of around 14,300 miles (23,000 km).
Its designers say the European project will deliver real-time positioning down to within meters with unrivaled accuracy.
Galileo is designed to be interoperable with the two other global navigation systems, America's GPS Latest News about global positioning system and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (Glonass).
This week's launch is under the control of Surrey Satellite's Technology's own ground station.
Preparations for lift-off were said to be going well.
Once the satellite is in orbit, the Galileo signals broadcast back to earth by Giove-A will be carefully analyzed by the ground station to make sure they satisfy the criteria laid down by the ITU.
European hopes of rivaling US dominance of space in the civil domain rest on the success of the launch.
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