EU to launch two satellites

THE European Union announced yesterday it will launch the first two satellites in its long-delayed and hugely over-budget Galileo navigation system from French Guiana on October 20.

EU industry commissioner Antonio Tajani said the launch, from the Kourou spacesport in the European enclave at the northern tip of South America, would take place at 7am local time.

Intended to rival the US-built Global Positioning System (GPS) and Chinese and Russian projects, the Galileo programme’s costs have risen to €5.4 billion.

Scheduled to go online in 2014 — six years later than originally planned — it envisages an initial constellation of 18 satellites.