Galileo Joint Undertaking, the organisation leading European development of a global satellite navigation system, has admitted it is already €404 million ($513 million) over budget, mainly due to miscalculating the cost of building and launching two technology pathfinder spacecraft, the first of which, GIOVE-A, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in December. The total budget for the Galileo programme, which will comprise 30 operational satellites, will be about €4.5 billion, of which €1.5 billion has already been spent. Initially, a foursatellite constellation of operational spacecraft will be launched.
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EADS Astrium and Lockheed Martin will work together to ensure the interoperability of future European and US satellite navigation systems. Galileo Joint Undertaking is managing a European consortium led by EADS
Astrium developing the Galileo spacebased radio positioning, navigation and time distribution system. The US military is also working on an upgraded block III of its existing Global Positioning System (GPS), with Lockheed Martin the prime contractor. Under an agreement announced, the companies say they will “perform systems engineering and technical assistance tasks for each other in the areas of interoperability, integrity and optimization of joint constellation performance”.The companies will also offer reciprocal bids on operational hardware and software, subject to
European and USA export policies.
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Swedish Space Corp. will provide northern telemetry, tracking and command services for ESA’s Galileo satellites at its Esrange Space Center near Kiruna. The 13-meter TT and C antenna to be located at Esrange will play a key role in the global infrastructure needed to operate the fleet of Galileo satellites, the company said in a news release. www.spacedaily.com

QinetiQ has announced that it has signed a contract to join the European consortium conducting Phase CDE1 of development of the Galileo satellite constellation. Under its 7.3 million euro, ($9.4 million) four-year contract, QinetiQ will perform security module development and test-support-tool design, construction and use. In addition, QinetiQ’s Centre for Propagation Analysis and Atmospheric Research will perform an ionospheric propagation analysis, which theoretically should validate Galileo’s expected performance.