Galileo is made in Europe by Europeans. If the Americans want to scramble GPS, they can do it whenever they want . . . whereas our system is a civilian-based system run by a civilian authority and would be completely autonomous.

Galileo will be a completely independent system made and controlled by Europeans and is a civilian service.

The next opportunity for a solar eclipse is 2081 for this part of the Earth so it's something which is attracting quite a lot of interest,

It shows that things continue to move ahead.

This is a sort of test for ion propulsion. It has the potential to be used for longer missions in the future -- to travel to other planets, for example.

The satellite is up in space and transmitting signals.

The physics of our world, and the ways of putting things into space, has not changed, so the machinery looks much the same, even if the content is much, much more sophisticated.

Lots of people are moving to this band which stretches from the tip of Cornwall and comes through Belgium, covering a good part of Belgium and France, then going to Germany and then it will go through Austria and Hungary.

We're starting with fresh technologies and more up-to- date components, and it will be run by a civilian system and not a military environment.