Europe aims to launch the first satellite in its Galileo program late this year aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, the European Space Agency said on Thursday.
Galileo is Europe's plan to create its own global navigation satellite system, with uses ranging from helping motorists navigate electronic maps to assisting search-and-rescue operations.
It is scheduled to go into service in 2008 and eventually will have 30 satellites orbiting almost 24,000 kilometers above the Earth.
A tight schedule requires the first satellite to start transmitting signals by next June or the project risks forfeiting its allocation of radio frequency rights.
"We must get at least one in orbit by June," an ESA spokesman said, adding that the aim was a launch by the end of 2005.
"The next step is to have four to do the in-orbit validation and, once we are satisfied with this, we can launch the remaining ones," he said.
The project is meant to rival the U.S. Global Positioning System. It will be interoperable with GPS as well as GLONASS, Russia's global satellite navigation system.
Europe is undertaking Galileo to ensure independent, uninterrupted access to such a system, which the other two military-operated systems cannot guarantee.
The ESA cites studies showing that Galileo could bring economic and social benefits worth 74 billion euros ($89 billion) by 2020, including more efficient transport and lower pollution, while creating 140,000 jobs.
The ESA spokesman said the first satellite would be used to test systems and would be launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
Commercial Soyuz launch services are provided by European-Russian company Starsem, in which Airbus parent firm EADS and European launch company Arianespace control a combined 50 percent.
Galileo took a major step forward this week when a consortium presented a bid to carry out the bulk of the work for the project, which is being managed by the European Commission's and the ESA's Galileo Joint Undertaking. A final deal is expected this year.
The consortium includes EADS, Alcatel and Thales of France, Britain's Inmarsat, Finmeccanica of Italy and Spain's AENA and Hispasat.
The EU has enlisted international partners including China and Israel to help fund Galileo, which the European Commission says will cost 2.1 billion euros to deploy.
($1=.8293 Euro)
