[opendtv] Galileo Faces Suspension as workshare Talks Stall
- From: "John Shutt" <shuttj@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "OpenDTV" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 12:16:15 -0400
Since the subject was brought up this week, I thought this was interesting.
John
http://www.flightinternational.com/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=201958&PrinterFriendly=true
Galileo faces suspension as workshare talks stall
Supplementary funding issue divides partners as cash for programme starts to
dry up
Work on the European Galileo navigational satellite programme could be
suspended if four of the national partners continue to block agreement over
industrial workshare linked to cost increases, says the European Space
Agency.
Finland, Germany, Spain and the UK are blocking a vote to resolve the issue
of supplementary funding for the Galileo programme, the cost of which has
increased from â1.1 billion to â1.5 billion ($1.32 billion to $1.81
billion).
Half of the extra â400 million is being provided by the European Commission
and the rest has to come from the Galileo partners.
A meeting planned for late August (Flight International, 9-15 August) was
cancelled and a subsequent meeting on 13 September saw no progress. Another
chance will come at the ESA Council meeting on 13 October.
Failure, says an ESA source, will mean âwe will have to reconsider the
situation very seriously as there is only enough money to support the work
for a few more weeksâ.
He says one of the options will be âto freeze the programme until we have
agreementâ.
A source within the UK Industrial Space Committee confirms that failure to
resolve the issue in October could be âdisastrousâ, but adds: âWeâre
optimistic. The brinkmanship has gone far enough. None of us wants to be the
only one blocking the programme.â
The source adds that the extra funding âmust be there by Christmas, or there
is a real danger the programme could stallâ.
JULIAN MOXON/LONDON
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