"2014 is the year we will get it started," EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani told reporters on 7 January. "The first services will be available as of 2014, and then progressively we will be adding more."
Galileo, intended to rival the US Global Positioning System (GPS), has been plagued by delays and squabbling over funding that only ended when the 27-nation EU agreed to fund it from the public purse.
Support services for Europe's biggest space programme will be provided by Franco-Italian group Thales Alenia Space in a contract worth €85 million euros, the European Commission said.
OHB secured its order, worth €566 million euros, after a competition with EADS Astrium. The two will continue to compete for orders for the remaining satellites in the programme, which will probably number between eight and 18.
"Astrium will remain a good competitor, and we do not have the feeling that we can rest on our laurels," OHB Chief Executive Marco Fuchs told reporters on a conference call.
The contract was a coup for the small German company which, in 2007, jointly with partners tried to buy three German factories from EADS planemaker Airbus before talks collapsed due to difficulties financing the deal.
OHB shares were up 10.4% to a two-year high at €13.97 euros at 1605 GMT.
Arianespace will be paid €397 million to launch the satellites on Soyuz rockets from French Guiana starting in October 2012.
Total cost of Galileo still a mystery
Tajani was unable to give a figure for the total cost of the project, which is initially estimated at over €3 billion, but he said it was in line with the most recent budgets.
"We can now focus on the actual roll-out," he said. "What remains to be seen is whether costs for launches increase."
He also said that according to a number of studies, Galileo will enable to save €90 billion between 2010 and 2027.
OHB, working in partnership with British-based, French-owned Surrey Satellite Technology, was expected to deliver its first satellite by July 2012 with the last delivered in March 2014.
"It will be compatible with the GPS system," said Tajani. "It will in fact adjust or correct the GPS signal and make it more accurate."
"Galileo is a system we intend to turn into a global system [...] and this is the reason we are working with the Chinese and other partners," he said.
OHB board member Fritz Merkle said the Galileo satellites, each only about two metres long and weighing 600-700 kilograms, would orbit Earth at an altitude of about 24,000 kilometres.
"It's like a flying phone booth with two wings that have solar panels," he said.
(EurActiv with Reuters.)
