EU transport ministers have agreed on Friday to continue developing the Galileo satellite navigation project, which it envisions as an alternative to the US-developed GPS system.

The system will comprise 30 satellites in mid-Earth orbit at an altitude of 26.000 km, supported by ground stations in Italy and Germany.

The ministers were under a deadline from the bloc's executive to decide whether to allocate EU funding to the project or abandon it altogether after a private consortium asked to build most of Galileo's infrastructure and run it folded up earlier this year.

Its cost has been estimated at around EUR 3,4 B and spare funding, primarily from the agriculture sector, will be used to cover its costs.

It will be carried out in six stages, with no single contractor allowed to carry out more than two stages, so as to prevent any single company monopolising the project.

The new proposal went through despite initial opposition from Spain, which wanted a more important role in the Galileo control centre activities

Although seen as a rival to the Global Positioning System (GPS) developed by the US department of defence, although the two are technologically complementary.

Designed to improve the availability and accuracy of timing signals delivered from space by a large margin, it could prove crucial in the development of future satellite navigation applications.

Bulgaria has always supported the project, although it does envisage taking any role of import in it. The country is represented by transport minister Petar Mutafchiev at the transport and communications council in Brussels, which will conclude on Monday.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!