The European Commission (EC) will order only 22 of 28 satellites needed for full operation of the Galileo satellite navigation system, leaving the remaining six to be purchased later.

Company officials from OHB System, which is bidding for the so-called Full Operating Capability (FOC) spacecraft award with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd against an Astrium/Thales Alenia Space team, say the framework contract for the award will cover all 28 units, which includes two spares, but only an initial batch of 22 will be acquired immediately. Best and final offers for the satellite award are due Nov. 13, and a decision is to be made by year's end.

European Commission officials say Galileo services will be rolled out gradually, with the open, encrypted Public Regulated Service (PRS) and search and rescue (SAR) signals available in 2013 and the safety-of-life and commercial signals sometime later. The first 22 FOC units, plus the four In-Orbit Validation (IOV) spacecraft already under construction by a team led by Astrium, Thales and Finmeccanica, will be enough for the initial service, they say.

Industry has long said the 3.4 billion euros currently budgeted for Galileo is not sufficient for the entire constellation. This would imply that additional money will have to be released to pay for the second batch of six, either in the mid-term 2006-13 budget review, to be completed by years end, or the 2014-20 budget plan, to be discussed next year.

The first two IOVs are to be orbited in late 2010 or early 2011 and the second pair in mid-2011, atop a Soyuz 2 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. The FOC spacecraft will be launched from 2011 through 2012. Arianespace is the sole source provider for the FOC launches, but whether the launches will be provided by Soyuz or a mix of Soyuz and Ariane 5s is not yet known. The EC also expects to issue launch and system awards this year, and satellite/mission control and service contracts early in 2011.

EC officials say the Galileo safety-of-life and commercial service will draw on operational feedback from the Egnos GPS augmentation system, which introduced its open service on Oct. 1. The Egnos safety-of-life service is to be certified in mid-2011 and the commercial service is to follow by the end of next year.

Artist's concept of Galileo: European Space Agency