Second Galileo Test Satellite Now in Orbit

Simon (S2) writes to mention that Europe's second Galileo navigation satellite reached orbit this past weekend. Galileo is promising to offer several technological advances in comparison to the US-based GPS system but no longer promises to be a guaranteed service. "The Galileo programme now seems certain to go ahead, after a prolonged and painful shift from partly-private financing of the construction to public funds taken from unspent EU farm subsidies. This money would normally have been returned to donor nations, with the UK, Germany and the Netherlands as the biggest three. London MPs have expressed doubt as to whether the UK will receive value for the money it will pay, but have acknowledged that the British government doesn't actually have any choice about Galileo under EU funding rules."

Comments

Wow, time for some EU dissolution...

[pla]

London MPs have expressed doubt as to whether the UK will receive value for the money it will pay, but have acknowledged that the British government doesn't actually have any choice about Galileo under EU funding rules.

Don't have any say???

As if EU members needed any more reasons to disband their borderline-organized-crime overlords, I'd say that aught to push any holdouts over the edge.

Using extorted farm subsidies, for an already-failed space program (Galileo specifically - I don't mean to condemn the entire ESA), with the actual funding nations having no recourse?

Daaaaaaaamn!

I find this so laughable...

[PortHaven]

People keep on criticizing the U.S. ethanol program as the reason for people to be starving in Africa. (Which is far from the truth. With much of the famines in regions like Africa being due to corruption, mismanagement and violent warlords.)

But now we know the real culprit for their starvation. Our good friends in Europe decided rather than spending millions on growing food and encouraging the farm industry so as to feed the world's poor.

They took those monies and instead blew it on a series of satellites that are essentially redundant to the one's America already launched into space. By the time E.U. launches enough satellites to have a full fledge system it will have expended a global fortune and led to the deaths of thousands and thousands in Africa who could have benefited from the food grown via the farm subsidies. :P

Re:Galileo?

[ArcherB]

I'm not comfortable with a critical infrastructure like GPS in the hands of the US. The current administration has shown that it is incapable of handling the power and responsibilities that come with being a superpower. Why? Did the current administration take the entire world to war... twice?!!?!? Has the US arrested and gassed millions of its own citizens who fit a particular religious group? Has the US gassed so many civilians that it ran out and had to invade other countries to keep the crematoriums humming?

No? Then I guess you or anyone else in Europe really has no room to criticize the US. When you compare the current US administration or any other, for that matter, to European ones, the US is small potatoes when it comes to mishandling power and responsibilities.

Sorry to have to point this out to you, but Fascism and Communism are truly European ideas that have cost the lives of hundreds of millions of civilian lives.

Former US presidents warned for the influence of the Military-Industrial complex, but that lesson seems to have been forgotten, No, the US just learned better of it. You know... after needing such a Military-Industrial complex to free Europe of fascism and all, fighting two world wars there and finally keeping the entire continent from falling under the control of the OTHER great Military-Industrial complex led by the likes of Stalin... we figured that a Military-Industrial complex is just what was needed. Of course, we would have preferred free health care and a train system that runs on time, but we had to pay to destroy Fascism and keep the rest of the continent from falling under the control of Communism. Ask those in Eastern Europe how much fun they had under Soviet control. Be sure to ask them if they could speak freely or what it's like to vote in an election with only one candidates.

...resulting in "Bringing peace and democracy to the Middle East". Think of how many lives could have been saved if we (or YOU) had that attitude in 1935.
Think of how many more lives would have been lost if we never had that attitude.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound like Europe owes the US or anything. Only an mobster or other asshole would demand payment for a gift. However, don't knock that military-industrial complex that has saved your ass repeatedly for the better part of the last century.
Don't give me shit about how you don't trust the US to handle the GPS. Frankly, it appears that Europeans are the ones who have trouble handling power. Maybe we in the US should be nervous that you guys are building a system of your own. History has repeatedly shown what can happen when Europeans get too much power.

So until the US starts two world wars that kill tens of millions of soldiers AND civilians... Europeans need STFU!