EU Takes First Step in Challenge to GPS

Europe on Wednesday launched the first in a planned network of orbiters expected to make satellite navigation on Earth more precise, wider-ranging and free of U.S. control.

Test satellite Giove A shot skyward from Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. Four hours later it began transmitting the first test signals in a $4 billion rival to the U.S.’s Global Positioning System.

The American military network has grown around the world in recent years to reach civilian users ranging from commercial airline pilots to lost hikers. But the military retains control, and President Bush last year announced plans for temporarily disabling the network in a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using it.

"If the Americans want to scramble GPS, they can do it whenever they want," European Space Agency spokesman Franco Bonacina said. "Whereas our system is a civilian-based system run by a civilian authority and would be completely autonomous."

By ANGELA DOLAND
Associated Press Writer

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