French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy announced that the headquarters for the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Galileo project will be located in Toulouse.
The GJU – the agency representing the European Commission (EU) and the European Space Agency, stated that in June 2005, it directed InavSat and Eurely – the two agencies responsible for this project – to establish a system in Europe equivalent to the U.S. GPS.
InavSat is made up of the European company EADS, the French company Thales, and the British company Inmarsat. Eurely is a collaboration between the French company Alcatel, the Italian group Finmeccanica, and the Spanish groups AENA and Hispasat.
Many cities have expressed interest in becoming the headquarters for Galileo, notably Munich, Rome, or Barcelona. Toulouse has emerged as a significant hub for France and Europe in the space sector, with the presence of CNES, Alcatel Alenia Space, and Astrium. The operation of the Galileo agency here is expected to create between 100 to 150 new jobs in the short term, and this could be sustained for a long time.
The Global Navigation Satellite System Galileo consists of 30 satellites orbiting approximately 24,000 kilometers from Earth. Five ground stations will transmit data to two control centers located in Europe.
Set to become operational in 2008 or earlier, Galileo aims to match the capabilities of the U.S. GPS and Russia’s GLONASS.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to launch two test satellites for the Galileo system, GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B. GIOVE-A departed from the ESA research center in the Netherlands on November 29 and arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where it is scheduled to launch in December. GIOVE-B is also set to be launched next year.
