Friday

29th Mar 2024

First Galileo satellite lifts off

The European Union's first satellite of the Galileo navigation program has been launched from Kazakhstan, a move considered as the start of Europe's space race with the US.

The 600 kg British built spacecraft, named "Giove A," took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Soyuz rocket early Wednesday morning (28 December).

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The satellite is part of Galileo, the €3.4 billion system from which the EU is aiming to deploy a total of 30 satellites by 2010.

The network will provide access to precise timing and location services delivered from space to the bloc's member states, currently relying on a system controlled by the US millitary.

The Galileo project, which is designed to rival America's Global Positioning System, aims to revolutionise industries including transport and will be used in maritime, rail and other navigation systems.

It will help the EU to set up a new air-traffic control system, allowing pilots to fly their own routes and altitudes, BBC reported.

The European governments will get tools needed to introduce wide-scale road charging, while mobile phone users will be able to pinpoint hospitals, car parking lots or hotels thanks to a Galileo chip integrated in their phones.

Giove A will test technologies needed for the other components of the project, like the in-orbit performance of two atomic clocks or radio frequencies assigned to Galileo within the International Telecommunications Union.

Galileo is a joint project between the EU and the European Space Agency, and is regarded by experts as Europe's largest space project to date.

US university cracks secret EU satellite code

A university in the US has cracked the secret codes of the European satellite system Galileo's first satellite in orbit, making it doubtful that the €3.4 billion project will pay for itself through commercial fees as promised by Brussels.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us