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| Galileo update |
| November 2006 |
Galileo
– the European Programme for Global Navigation
Services for civil purposes is an initiative led
by European Union. We provide regular updates
to our readers on the Galileo programme. |
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EU’s
transport chief eyes military use for satellite system |
| The European
Union should consider employing its Galileo satellite
navigation program for military uses in addition to
the civilian purposes for which it was designed, the
EU’s transport chief said. “Galileo was
supposed to be a civilian system only but I wonder whether
we shouldn’t question that,” Transport Commissioner
Jacques Barrot told a conference in Luxembourg. “Using
it for military purposes, for defence purposes ... would
be very interesting in terms of paying for the infrastructure
and the
investment,” he said of the multi-billioneuro
project.
www.defensenews.com |
Management
of the European Satellite radio-navigation programme |
European Parliament adopted a nonbinding report by
the Chairman of the Industry, Research and Energy
Committee - Giles CHICHESTER (EPP-ED, UK) on the management
of the European Satellite radio-navigation programme.
The report was adopted with 555 votes in favour, 27
against and 27 abstentions. The purpose of the proposal
is to amend Council Regulation 1321/2004/EC to enable
the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (responsible
for the European Satellite Navigation programmes -
Galileo and EGNOS) to complete the development phase
of the Galileo programme after the Galileo Joint Undertaking
is wound up. The Galileo Joint Undertaking should
be wound up on 31 December 2006 and its activities
transferred to the Supervisory Authority.
www.noticias.info
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| Tracking station key
for EU satellites |
A
Southland-based tracking station may become a key player
in Europe’s plans to build a global navigation
satellite system, Galileo. The European Space Agency
(ESA) plan to have the station operational next year,
in time for the much-anticipated launch of the Jules
Verne – Europe’s first automated supply
vehicle. Based on an Awarua farm site, between Invercargill
and Bluff, the station will record a segment of the
rocket’s movements as it carries supplies to the
international space station, up to 11 times over eight
years. The tracking station will record the movements
of the supply vessel during the critical period when
a second series of rockets propel it into orbit following
its launch from French Guiana, in South America.
www.stuff.co.nz |
| GIOVE-A laser ranging
campaign successful |
Fourteen
laser ranging stations participated in a campaign to
track ESA’s GIOVE-A satellite during the spring
and summer of 2006, providing invaluable data for the
characterisation of the satellite’s on-board clock.
The campaign was coordinated by the International Laser
Ranging Service (ILRS) and the GIOVE Processing Centre
at ESA-ESTEC.
GIOVE-A, developed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd
(UK), was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 28 December
2005 and placed into a medium Earth orbit with an altitude
of 23 260 km. Carrying a payload consisting of rubidium
clocks, signal generation units and a phase array of
individual L-band antenna elements, GIOVE-A started
broadcasting Galileo signals on 12 January, securing
the frequencies allocated by the International Telecommunications
Union for the Galileo system.
http://www.esa.int |
India
may quit Galileo
India’s participation
in the Galileo project, a satellite navigation
system being developed by EU and European Space
Agency, expected to rival the
United States’ GPS , has run into the
hard ground realities of security concerns.
India fears that sharing of sensitive data may
not be adequately firewalled from individuals
and other nations participating in the enterprise.
India had signed up to the 30- satellite landmark
space navigation project in September last year.
The details of the Indian participation were
to be completed during the just-concluded summit
meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with
EU leaders in Helsinki.
But the expected progress could not be made
in Helsinki, sources said, adding that the Indian
concerns related to the access that the satellite
system will have to all manner of geographical
and tactical locations in the country. Further,
there were questions over how widely would the
very precise data the system would provide of
facilities, and even individual phone and vehicle
users, be accessed. These issues, said sources,
had not been resolved at Helsinki and despite
the official statement before the PM’s
visit, that details of Indian participation
in the Galileo project were close to completion,
there was a lack of progress when Indian and
EU officials discussed the issues in Finland.
Recently, the European Commission suggested,
in a policy shift that sets it on a collision
course with UK and the US, that Galileo might
be opened up for military use.
While Indian military and civilian facilities
are open to satellite surveillance from US and
other military-use satellites, the problem with
Galileo project is uncertainty over users of
the data. The Times of India, October 16, 2006-11-12 |
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