European Space Agency (ESA) ministers agreed Monday to the conditions for their participation in the Galileo satellite navigation program under the Galileo Joint Undertaking foundation act, which is expected to be signed by the ESA and the European Union (EU). The agreement clears the way for the official launch of the legal entity, which will have the task of coordinating ESA and EU involvement in Galileo, the European initiative to develop a global satellite navigation system.

The Galileo Joint Undertaking, to be headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, will pave the way for the entity that will operate the Galileo system. It will be responsible for the Galileo development and validation phase and also for preparations for system deployment and operations. Financial contributions of ESA member countries to the Galileo project were not disclosed.

Expected to be operational by 2008, the Galileo system will be built around 30 satellites (27 operational and 3 reserve craft) occupying three circular earth orbits, inclined at 56 degrees to the equator, at an altitude of 23,616 kilometers (14,300 miles). Two Galileo control centers will be built to control satellite operations and manage the navigation system.

Separately, ESA announced that the EGNOS(European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) system has begun its first signal transmission tests. This system, which augments the existing Global Positioning System, is a precursor to the Galileo system. EGNOS will consist of three geostationary satellites and a network of ground stations that will transmit signals containing information on the reliability and accuracy of the positioning signals. By spring 2004, the full network needed for this augmentation system will have been deployed all around Europe and beyond.

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