A Telespazio and Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) joint venture backed by Deutsche Telekom will sign a contract to operate the European Galileo satellite navigation system, according to German financial newspaper Handelsblatt, citing an unidentified DLR spokesman. European Union Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani is scheduled to announce the deal on 26 October. The European Space Agency wants the Galileo project to begin service in 2014 and be completed in 2016. At the same time, the German government has asked the European Commission to propose ways to cut the cost of Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system, a spokeswoman for Germany's Transport Ministry said to Reuters. The project, Europe's planned alternative to the US network, has been hit by delays and disputes over funding that ended when the 27-nation European Union agreed to invest public money. German magazine Wirtschafts Woche said Berlin now wants to shrink the costs of the program, administered through the European Union and European space agency, by EUR 500-EUR 700 million. One option to achieve those savings is to scrap plans to use the Ariane 5 launcher to get the satellites into orbit and use the Russian Soyuz launcher instead according to German government sources cited by the magazine.
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