Galileo, by Council resolution
The Council of the European Union formally launches the Galileo programme. The justification, written down explicitly, is freedom from American GPS as a strategic single point of failure.
A working catalogue entry, kept current. Each paragraph is drawn from the publicly documented record.
On 26 March 2002 the Council of the European Union formally approves the development phase of the Galileo satellite navigation programme, against years of opposition from Washington. The Bush administration had argued repeatedly that a second civilian GNSS was unnecessary and would complicate signal management; Brussels concluded otherwise.
The justification, written down in the Council's own communiqués, is freedom from American GPS as a strategic single point of failure. Galileo's first operational satellites launch in 2011 and the constellation reaches initial operational capability in 2016 — proving, if nothing else, that a determined civilian alternative is technically and politically achievable.
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