China To Sign Seven Satellite Navigation Contracts With EU Since nobody trusts us anymore we have to conted with this sort of thing. Looks like an ICBM targeting system to me.
China has committed itself in 2003 to a 200-million-euro investment in Galileo, a project with an estimated final cost of 3.5 billion euros.
Beijing will put forward 70 million euros for the initial phase of the project, which aims to create a rival to the United States’ global positioning system.
via E. Campbell
Looks like an ICBM targeting system to me.
Got some more information about that so that it doesn’t look so kooky?
As for the comment in the RSS feed:
More space junk, or a nrew targeting system?
Nice little false dichotomy.
AFAIK Galileo isn’t supposed to be a rival to GPS. In fact there have been extensive talks regarding future compatibility between both systems, so I assume we’re all going to benefit from it.
Since there is no more selective availability since the late 90’s, I tend to believe that military uses of GPS would be limited and some alternative system would be available for high precision uses such as the one you mention. That’s what I’d expect, at least. These days I think most uses of GPS and Galileo will be civilian. There’s a lot of money to be made there.
Once upon a time, the United States had Landsat. Then Reagan decided that Landsat actually belonged to a Corporation, who bought it cheap and then raised the price of photos to unaffordable levels. The French SPOT satellites outclassed Landsat long ago and now India has announced a stereo satellite. Who knows, maybe they will decide to sell the pics at a reasonable price.
There are two interlocking reasons for Galileo, which is an EU project to start with:
No one in the world trust the US enough to rely exclusively on navigation information that has to be filtered through the White House and the Pentagon.
The White House and the Pentagon have made it clear they want everyone else in the world to have to rely on our government to control navigation information.
Especially if we’re invading someone, that week.
“Since there is no more selective availability since the late 90’s, I tend to believe that military uses of GPS would be limited …”
Yeah, Clinton turned it off – but do you think Bush [or whomever is President after him] will keep it off if China decides to invade Taiwan?
Its’ not about ICBMs, its’ about everything navigation-related being tied-into GPS and/or Galileo.
And one point from the U.S. Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Policy (PNT) issued by President George Bush on December 15, 2004:
Improve capabilities to deny hostile use of any space-based positioning, navigation, and timing services, without unduly disrupting civil and commercial access to civil positioning, navigation, and timing services outside an area of military operations, or for homeland security purposes
The Europens like the fact that the US wants the two systems [GPS & Galileo] to be compatible, but they don’t like how the US military is trying to find a way to jam the European system, while leaving the US’s encrypted [military] system online.
If the Chinese have a major stake in the technology, it will be harder to cut them off in a conflict.
It’s not my contry wouldn’t be doing the same thing, if our roles were reversed. 
Dave,
I liked your link.
Brenda,
So where is Google getting its satallite photos from?
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