The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded contracts worth $113.2 million to the UK's Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) and European consortium Galileo Industries for the development of two pathfinder satellites for the Galileo global navigation satellite system. SSTL is to build the $31.6 million GSTB- v2A spacecraft to be launched by June 2006 aboard a Starsem Soyuz booster. It will measure the radiation environment and test reserved frequencies. The second satellite, being built under an $81.6 million contract, will be supplied by Alcatel, Alenia Spazio, Astrium and Galileo Sistemas y Servicios. This will have the 525kg (1,155lb) mass of the operational system and a dummy payload.
Source: Flight International