Companies short-listed for Galileo project

The European Commission and European Space Agency (ESA) have selected 11 companies from 21 applicants as potential partners in the Galileo satellite navigation project. The ESA will handle the next stage of the procurement process to find a single private-sector supplier for each of the six predefined working areas.

Five of the working areas - system support, ground mission systems, ground control systems, the space segment and operation have two candidates each. The only candidate for launch services is France's Arrianespace.

Galileo is a similar scheme to the US military's GPS and Russia's GLONASS satellite navigation services, designed to complement the two by providing more visibility to satellites and better accuracy.