ESA and Galileo Industries take Galileo forward

On 21 December 2004 the European Space Agency and Galileo Industries signed a €150 m contract, as a first stage towards signing an approximately €950 m contract covering the overall IOV phase. The contract provides the basis and the technical activities necessary for in-orbit validation of the Galileo system. It gives preliminary authorisation to proceed with the whole of this work, over a six-month period. This work notably concerns the management of the programme and the choice of engineering systems and technical support required to maintain the overall credibility of the scheduling and ensure system coherence.