* Astronomy

GIOVE - standing for 'Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element' - is the name that has been chosen for the two satellites which are currently being prepared to take the first step of the In-Orbit Validation phase towards full deployment of Galileo, the European satellite navigation system.

The in-orbit testing phase of Galileo, Europe's satellite-navigation system, will begin in December.
The first demonstrator spacecraft will fly from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on a Soyuz rocket on the 28th of the month.
The satellite, known as Giove-A, has the critical task of claiming the frequencies allocated to Galileo under international agreements.
To do this, the UK-built spacecraft must generate and transmit a timing and navigation signal by June 2006.

Galileo is Europe's biggest and most expensive space project. It will be independent of the American Global Positioning System (GPS) but interoperable with it.
Analysts expect the new constellation to drive a multi-billion euro industry, creating perhaps 140,000 jobs.
Being given such an important role in the project is a huge honour and something of a coup for Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), Giove-A's manufacturer.

WHAT IS GALILEO?

* Europe's own global satellite navigation system
* Will work alongside US GPS and Russian Glonass systems
* Promises real-time positioning down to under a metre
* Guaranteed under all but most extreme circumstances
* Suitable for safety-critical systems - can run trains, guide cars and land planes



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Europe has decided to implement a satellite-based navigation system in a two-step approach. The first step will lead to a European overlay navigation system (EGNOS) using the two existing navigation satellite constellations (GPS and Glonass); this system is already contracted to industry and test operations have started. The second step (Galileo) is intended to enable Europe to become a major partner in the setting up of a civilian satellite service around 2008. This service will meet worldwide the multimodal navigation requirements and can operate either autonomously or together with other systems. Aeronautical, maritime and land mobile users will greatly benefit from the service.
Credits: ESA-J. Huart

The small company from Guildford, UK, has developed a speciality in rapid, low-cost satellite construction and has been handed the inaugural flight ahead of a consortium of some of Europe's biggest aerospace concerns.

"We have delivered this spacecraft on time and at a fraction of the cost of conventional industry. There were a lot of people who recognised our expertise with microsatellites but who thought this might be beyond us. We didn't feel that and this is our vindication" - Professor Martin Sweeting, the CEO of SSTL.

Giove-A is currently undergoing final preparation at the European Space Agency's (Esa) technical centre, Estec, at Noordwijk, in the Netherlands.

It was here on Wednesday that Dutch Transport Minister, Ms Karla Peijs, officially named the spacecraft.

Up until this point, it had been referred to by its rather uninspiring project designation: the Galileo System Test Bed v2A, or GSTB-v2A for short.

Giove is Italian for Jupiter, the planet whose four major natural satellites Galileo Galilei used to develop a rudimentary form of navigation.
He realised that the formation of these moons, whose eclipses are frequent and visible, provided a clock whose face could be seen from every point on the Earth.

The 28m euro (£20m), 600kg demonstrator will be the first European mission to fly in the high-radiation environment of medium-Earth orbit (MEO), at an altitude of 24,000km.
One of its goals, therefore, will be to assess how components cope in such conditions.

But more fundamentally, Giove-A will run a payload that includes a rubidium atomic clock and a navigation signal generator capable of transmitting the codes and frequencies that will be used for Galileo.


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Artist's impression of GSTB-V2/A in orbit. The spacecraft antennas are directed towards the viewer.
Credits: ESA


THE GALILEO FUTURE

* Expected to be more than 400 million sat-nav users by 2015
* European aerospace and electronics firms say it will create more than 100,000 jobs
* Rescue services will be able to pinpoint the exact location of a car driver's accident
* System will allow someone to find their way in an unfamiliar city using their mobile phone
* It will deliver a system that will make national road-pricing a practical possibility

The International Telecommunications Union has told the EU-Esa project that a signal of the correct structure must have been received on Earth by mid-2006 or the frequencies reserved for the venture could be handed to another party.

If something should go wrong with Giove-A, Esa has a back-up plan in GSTB-v2B (now known as Giove-B), another demonstrator built by the Galileo Industries consortium.

This will be launched in the New Year anyway - perhaps March or April - because it contains additional technologies not on the Surrey craft.

These include a hydrogen maser clock, one of the key components of the Galileo set-up that should allow top-level subscribers to know their position on the planet down to a few centimetres.

The first four satellites that will be used in the Galileo constellation proper have already been ordered and will fly in 2008-9. The remaining 26 will be sent up in batches to complete the network by the end of 2010.

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The iNavSat and Eurely consortia were awarded the contract to run Europe's multi-billion euro satellite-navigation system, Galileo.

The two groups were given the contract by the Galileo Joint Undertaking, a body set up to drive the project's early phases.
An armada of 30 spacecraft should be in orbit by the decade's end.
Part of Galileo's high performance will come from its ability to work seamlessly with the existing US Global Positioning System (GPS).

The European Union expects the venture to create more than 100,000 jobs as sat-nav applications are run on more and more mobile devices.
The test satellites are already under construction and the first spacecraft is expected to be launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket in December.

"The joint offer contains substantial improvements compared to the separate offers that were on the table. It foresees higher commercial revenues thanks to a concentration of the know-how of the two bidders" - Jacques Barrot, commission vice-president.

The contract will give the companies the right to operate Galileo for 20 years and reap the commercial gains from it.
Analysts differ in their projections for the size of this revenue stream - but most foresee the Galileo-enhanced business - equipment and services - to be worth well in excess of 10 billion euros a year by 2020.
iNavSat comprises the European aerospace giant EADS, France's Thales and British-based satellite communications group Inmarsat. Eurely is made up of France's Alcatel, Italy's Finmeccanica and Spain's AENA and Hispasat. In partnership, they will now tie up the details of the deal over the course of the next six months.

"We found areas where each side could offer something that was just a bit more attractive. That enabled us to take the peaks from the two sides and come up with an offer that was better for the public sector.
We recognise Galileo to be a huge and challenging project, and we're not daunted by creating a bigger consortium because we see it as a more robust approach to risk management.
All the major European players in the GNSS field are now involved in this consortium. There is a good fit" - Lyn Dutton, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) development manager with Thales in the UK.