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E.U. Satellite Launches New Era

The European Union last Wednesday launched the first satellite in its $4.5 billion Galileo global positioning system in a bid to enhance the world`s growing reliance on satellite navigation as well as to break America`s monopoly on space-based networks. Officials of the European Space Agency (ESA) said the Galileo system which is scheduled to begin operation in 2008 will double the world`s satellite coverage, currently provided by the U.S. military`s Global Positioning System (GPS).

The Galileo network will be more accurate than its American counterpart when it comes to civilian uses, and will allow enhanced services such as tracing emergency calls to within a yard of their origin and helping tourists find an ATM when they are in a strange city just by using a chip inserted into the cell phone the toursts have with them. The United States has warned it could diminish or even cut off GPS satellite coverage to countries considered enemies in times of national emergency.

The Galileo project represents "the independence of the European Union," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Wednesday after the 1,300-pound test satellite soared into orbit atop a Russian-built Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Future plans call for the Galileo system to eventually include a necklace of 30 satellites above our planet. The project is also expected to give a major boost to the European aerospace industry at a time when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the U.S. is struggling in the face of disasters and budget cuts.