European Satellite Navigation Industries
Encyclopedia
European Satellite Navigation Industries, formerly called Galileo Industries until legal action prompted a name change, was a joint venture
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...

 of the companies Alcatel Alenia Space and Thales
Thales Group
The Thales Group is a French electronics company delivering information systems and services for the aerospace, defense, transportation and security markets...

 (France), Finmeccanica
Finmeccanica
Finmeccanica S.p.A. is an Italian conglomerate. Finmeccanica is the second largest industrial group and the largest of the hi-tech industrial groups based in Italy. It works in the fields of defence, aerospace, security, automation, transport and energy...

 (Italy), EADS Astrium
EADS Astrium
Astrium Satellites is one of the three business units of Astrium, a subsidiary of EADS. It is a European space manufacturer involved in the manufacture of spacecraft used for science, Earth observation and telecommunication, as well as the equipment and subsystems used therein and related ground...

 (UK and Germany) and Galileo Sistemas y Servicios (a consortium of seven Spanish companies).

The company was the primary construction company for the Galileo positioning system
Galileo positioning system
Galileo is a global navigation satellite system currently being built by the European Union and European Space Agency . The €20 billion project is named after the famous Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei...

, tasked with developing and building the satellites and components for the ground segment infrastructure of this satellite navigation system. The partner firms committed to not construct competing products for Galileo. However, some competition came from Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a spin-off company of the University of Surrey, now fully owned by EADS Astrium, that builds and operates small satellites. Its satellites began as amateur radio satellites known by the UoSAT name or by an OSCAR designation...

, which successfully built and launched the first GIOVE-A
GIOVE
GIOVE, or Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element, is the name for each satellite in a series being built for the European Space Agency to test technology in orbit for the Galileo positioning system.Giove is the Italian word for "Jupiter"...

 testbed satellite, and which was then awarded a contract for a followon GIOVE-A2
GIOVE
GIOVE, or Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element, is the name for each satellite in a series being built for the European Space Agency to test technology in orbit for the Galileo positioning system.Giove is the Italian word for "Jupiter"...

 satellite while the joint venture's GIOVE-B
GIOVE
GIOVE, or Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element, is the name for each satellite in a series being built for the European Space Agency to test technology in orbit for the Galileo positioning system.Giove is the Italian word for "Jupiter"...

 satellite remained on the ground awaiting launch. Since that time, the GIOVE-B
GIOVE
GIOVE, or Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element, is the name for each satellite in a series being built for the European Space Agency to test technology in orbit for the Galileo positioning system.Giove is the Italian word for "Jupiter"...

 satellite successfully launched, although after the Galileo project had been abandoned by European Satellite Navigation Industries and taken up by the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

.

The company was headquartered at Ottobrunn
Ottobrunn
Ottobrunn is a municipality southeast of Munich, Bavaria, Germany, founded in 1955. Ottobrunn consists of mainly semi-detached and detached houses, and lots of gardens...

 near Munich, with an office in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. The company employed around two hundred people, many working directly for their parent corporations.

Update

This private sector group of eight companies abandoned Galileo in 2007. Subsequently, EU has taken over the construction of Galileo positioning system. On the 21st December 2007 ESA
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

terminated the Galileo contract with the European Satellite Navigation Industries.

Further reading

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