The European Union and European Space Agency (ESA) will launch the first components next week of the €20 billion Galileo global navigation satellite system. This constellation of satellites will allow users to pinpoint their location anywhere on Earth. It will be a free, fully autonomous and interoperable worldwide satellite navigation system, broadcasting global navigation signals for high-performance services, which ESA says possesses the service integrity guarantees that GPS lacks for commercial and safety-critical services.
The first launch is scheduled for October 20, 2011. This 3-D video provides an overview of the system. Use red/blue 3D glasses to watch in 3D.
Somewhere in the Pentagon there is a U.S.A.F. General, sitting behind a desk with an anglepoise lamp, biting his fingernails!
GPS become so important in everyday life that I doubt USA will ever decide to turn it off. I think Europe wants it for political reasons.
Think of how many starving people they could have fed with those billions. Unnecessary redundancy. Chest thumping on the part of the Europeans.
Think of how many scientists, technicians, and engineers we could leave unemployed and starving by not building things such as this.
The same old money starving people cr&p by people that has no clue about science.
Maybe we should send the money from cancer research to the starving people? Or maybe we should send the money from heart and lung research to the starving people?
Maybe we should decommission all satellite, like weather satellites, TV satellites, GPS satellites too and use that to send to starving people? Maybe we should sent all money pumped into foot ball games to all starving people? So they can buy more weapons to raid a nearby village. Or use it to buy luxury because of corruption.
And yes, I donate every year about 2400 Euro for people in need for the last 5 years.
ok, change my comment from starving people to cancer research. That’ll keep scientists employed. I have no problem with that change. My complaint is that this is a redundancy. There is no forward movement of humakind with this system. There is already a good GPS system in place. Spend the money on something more worthwhile. In fact, spend the money on sending a rocket to the moon or mars. GPS: Been there, done that. . .
On May 19, 2009, the United States Government Accountability Office issued a report warning that some GPS satellites could fail as soon as 2010.*
*Source: GPS system ‘close to breakdown’.