Air Transport

^{Tim Furniss in London}

Galileo Joint Undertaking, the organisation leading European development of a global satellite navigation system, has admitted it is already €404 million ($513 million) over budget, mainly due to miscalculating the cost of building and launching two technology pathfinder spacecraft, the first of which, GIOVE-A, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in December.

The total budget for the Galileo programme, which will comprise 30 operational satellites, will be about €4.5 billion, of which €1.5 billion has already been spent. Initially, a four-satellite constellation of operational spacecraft will be launched.

The Surrey Satellite Technology-built GIOVE-A is demonstrating rubidium atomic clocks and signal generation units, while the Galileo Industries-built GIOVE-B will demonstrate new passive hydrogen maser units to be used as primary clocks, plus two rubidium back-up clocks.

GIOVE-B’s planned April launch from Baikonur has been delayed until December, at the earliest.