The European Union successfully deployed the first satellite in a 3.8 billion euro (4.5 billion dollar) navigation system which is planned to rival the reigning US GPS network and allow civilians to calculate their geographic position to the nearest metre.

The European Union successfully deployed the first satellite in a 3.8 billion euro (4.5 billion dollar) navigation system which is planned to rival the reigning US GPS network and allow civilians to calculate their geographic position to the nearest metre.
"We have a working satellite," the European Space Agency's (ESA) project leader Javier Benedicto told AFP by telephone from Russia's Baikonur launch centre in northern Kazakhstan, after the British-built GIOVE-A successfully opened its solar panels and booted onboard computers.

The GIOVE-A blasted off from Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz rocket at 0519 GMT on a mission to test equipment, including an atomic clock, in preparation for future phases of the project.

The satellite will help set the stage for a 30-satellite constellation giving mariners, pilots, drivers and others an almost pinpoint-accurate navigational tool.