MUNICH, Germany — Galileo Industries and German aerospace organization DLR on Tuesday (Nov. 7) broke ground for one of two planned Galileo navigation satellite control centers in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich.

The partners said they will spend about €16 million ($20.3 million) on infrastructure construction. However, the budget does not include electronics and IT equipment for which Galileo Industries is the main contractor. For the "in-orbit validation" phase, which includes four satellites, the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA) have budgeted €1.5 billion. The full, 30-satellite constellation will cost €3.5 billion, according to a spokesman for the Bavarian state government.

The Galileo project is expected to create about 100.000 jobs throughout Europe, many of them at Galileo project partners Telespatio SpA in Italy, Inmarsat in the U.K., HispaSat and AENA in Spain, CNES in France and ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany.

The second Galileo control center will be built in Rome. Besides the two control centers, the project includes a L-band signal center and an upload station that will provide software updates and ultra-precise timing signals to orbiting satellites.

A DLR spokesman denied reports that the delayed launch of the second satellite, Giove-B, would delay the Galileo project. Giove-B is currently scheduled to be launched in spring 2007. According to reports, problems with components have caused a delay that so far has added up to about a year. The fist Galileo satellite, dubbed Giova-A, was launched in January.