European Diary: The Christmas holiday brought most EU business to a halt last week but in a remote part of Asia one of the bloc's biggest scientific projects finally got off the ground, writes Jamie Smyth
The successful launch of the Giove-A satellite in Kazakhstan marked the start of the EU's €3.3 billion Galileo programme, which has suffered a series of delays and political infighting since it was given the go-ahead by member states in 2002.
Galileo promises to deliver sophisticated satellite navigation services to consumers, businesses and EU states when it enters service in 2009.
For example, people will use the system to find a nearby restaurant on their mobile phone, while governments plan to use it to monitor disasters and enhance emergency services.
Galileo works by using four separate satellites to beam signals from space to satellite receiver chips on the ground to pinpoint their exact location. When complete, the system will have a network of 30 satellites in orbit to give complete global coverage.
"This is the European equivalent of the global positioning system run by the US and a similar system set up by the Russians," says Franco Bonacina of the Paris-based European Space Agency, which has teamed up with the European Commission to deliver the project.
"Galileo will be more precise than GPS and offer a better continuity of service as it has 20 years of technology ahead of the Americans."
Galileo should be accurate to within one metre. This compares to 10 metres for the GPS system, which is currently the standard for consumer devices such as in-car satellite navigation systems and a range of business and military navigational services.
A few metres may not sound like much but it could be critical to enable the introduction of a new generation of services, such as landing aircraft using computer systems or controlling train networks, according to EU scientists.
However, Galileo is not simply a scientific or commercial project. At heart, it is a political exercise that will offer the EU access to a strategically important technology.
"Galileo will be a completely independent system made and controlled by Europeans and is a civilian service," says Bonacina, who contrasts this with the GPS system, which is controlled by the US military and can be switched off if it so orders.
With thousands of European companies relying on the signals provided by the GPS system to provide services to their customers, this threat cannot be taken lightly. This was underlined last year when President Bush warned that US global positioning satellites might be shut down during times of national crisis or terrorist incidents.
But Europe's ambition to build a satellite navigation system has ruffled feathers at the Pentagon. The US military initially objected to Galileo on grounds that its signals might interfere with rival projects it is developing.
The US is also concerned that one of its rivals, China, is a partner in the project.
Some of these concerns were overcome last year when the EU and US agreed a deal to make Galileo and GPS compatible - enabling navigation equipment to switch between each system.
But some Europeans are also sceptical about Galileo, labelling it the "common agricultural policy of space".
They argue it is a waste of money because GPS is made available to EU governments and firms at very low cost and will soon be upgraded.
There have also been rifts between the main proponents of the project, particularly France and Germany.
In early 2005 political bickering over which companies should win the main tender to run the Galileo system delayed the start of the project. The German government backed a bid by the iNavSat consortium, while France pushed for another consortium called Eurely. Thousands of jobs were at stake for both countries, which lobbied furiously for the benefit of their own national industrial champions.
In June a compromise was struck and the consortiums merged, safeguarding thousands of jobs in France.
Meanwhile, Germany's former transport minister Manfred Stolpe made it clear national interest remained an integral part of the Galileo project.
"Germany is not only interested in profitable operation of the system, but also a fair stake for German industry," he said in a statement announcing the deal.
Whether EU taxpayers, who will stump up at least a third of the cash for Galileo, will be best served by the arrangement remains to be seen. Last week the firm that built the Giove-A satellite, Surrey Satellite Technology, stressed the vital importance of competition in the tender to build the satellite. "The net result of the competitive tender was that the ESA got two satellites for the price of one," said Steven Ballard, a spokesman for the firm.
Critics of Galileo will be watching closely to ensure national interest does not undermine the credibility of the EU's biggest space project.