Brussels, 23/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - The plan to deploy the European satellite navigation system, Galileo, entered its final phase on Wednesday 22 June with the signing of the last two contracts by the European Space Agency (ESA) on behalf of the European Commission, at the Le Bourget Aerospace Fair. Signed with the French group, Thales Alenia Space, and the British group, EADS Astrium, these contracts, which are together worth €335 million, relate to the good “housekeeping” of Galileo including the maintenance and correct positioning of the satellites in orbit. Twenty-one stations will be built throughout the world in order to allow signals transmitted by the satellites to be received and re-emitted. Two control centres are also to be set up in Italy and Germany. Now that the contract has been signed, the European commissioner for industry and enterprise, Antonio Tajani, has welcomed the fact that the figure of €1.9 billion previously underlined for completion of the system may now be reviewed downward with a reduction of €500 million in costs. This should allow six additional satellites to be sent into orbit, thus bringing their number to 24. Implementation of the six stages of the European project, three years after the procedure began, “marks the end of a rigorous procurement process, and the beginning of a new chapter for Galileo”, Antonio Tajani said. The commissioner is banking on the launch into orbit, scheduled for 20 October, of the first two operational satellites, in order to mark the beginning of infrastructure-building that will make it possible to provide vital services to citizens in 2014, he said. The Commission trusts that the Galileo project, which sees itself as a rival to the US system GPS and the Russian Glonass, will generate profits by way of €90 billion over the period 2010-2030. (J.K./transl.jl)