A UK company has launched Europe’s first navigation satellite as part of a project to rival the US global positioning system (GPS).

Guildford-based firm Surrey Satellite Technology worked with the European Commission and European Space Agency to build the Giove-A satellite, launched last week from the Baikonour cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The satellite is the first to be launched as part of the Galileo project, a €3.2bn (£2.2bn) satellite navigation system intended to provide Europe with a greater range of location-based services, telematics and safety systems (Computing, 8 September).

Giove-A’s first job will be to secure the frequencies allocated by the International Telecommunication Union for the constellation of 30 satellites that will form Galileo.

The satellite will also test the atomic clocks for the system, scheduled to become fully operational by 2008.

‘The launch of the first test satellite heralds a major stage in the programme, as it is the first step of Galileo in space,’ said Rainer Grohe, executive director of the Galileo Joint Undertaking.

The system will help provide satellite navigation applications for the transport, social services and law enforcement sectors.