Monday, July 28, 2003
Europe challenges US space monopoly
REUTERS
PARIS: In sectors ranging from aviation to mobile communications, Europe has come from nowhere to challenge the US where it once dominated.
Plane-maker Airbus, founded in the late '60s with the support of European governments, now sells more passenger jets than its rival and long-time market leader, Boeing. And GSM, a state-sponsored initiative of the late ' 80s, has evolved to become the digital cellular standard, allowing Europe to leapfrog the US in mobile penetration rates.
Now, experts are wondering if Europe may again catch the Americans napping, this time in space.
At the end of May, the European Space Agency announced it had secured backing from its member states to launch Galileo, an independent European satellite constellation that will rival the US military's GPS global positioning system. For a quarter of a century GPS satellites have hovered 20,000 km (12,430 miles) above the earth's surface, sending signals that are now essential for guiding mountain climbers, pilots and army generals alike.
In the Iraq war, an estimated 60% of the bombs used by the US were GPS-steered. And GPS-based timing information facilitates international financial transactions and plays a key role in the functioning of the internet. But GPS now looks vulnerable.
Because the US has focused on its military applications, Europe is seizing an opportunity to build a new system tailored to civilians, which now outnumber military users 100-1.
In contrast to GPS, which is run by the Pentagon, Galileo will be run by civilians. It promises greater continuity and broader coverage than GPS, potentially giving it a leg up in key applications such as traffic management. "The US could end up ceding leadership in civil navigation to Europe," said Jeffrey Bialos, former head of the US delegation for negotiations on GPS and Galileo.
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