A Chinese general contractor for the European Galileo Project in Beijing recently obtained three space-based application projects. The Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) endorsed the China Galileo Industries (CGI) to develop search and rescue radar transponders (SART), laser retrore ?ectors and up-link stations (ULS). Meanwhile, the Early Galileo Services in China (EGSIC) and the Galileo Olympic Games Demonstration (GOGD) are also open for public bidding. China was the first country outside Europe to join the Galileo Project, agreeing to invest a total of 200 million euros into the global consortium. About 70 million euros of the Chinese investment have been put into technologies development and the remaining 130 million euros into deployment of space and ground infrastructure.
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The first of some 30 satellites of the European Union’s Galileo satellite navigation program was unveiled one month before it will be launched into space. The “Giove A” satellite will be launched in the second half of December by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Galileo program will now truly begin with the launch of this first satellite. The satellite was unveiled at a brief ceremony at the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. A second satellite named “Giove B” - ‘Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element’ - will be launched in the Spring of 2006. The first two satellites are important for testing the Galileo program from space, the European Space Agency said in a statement.
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