European Union announces increase in size of Galileo constellation to 32 satellites

In a surprise move, on January 7, 2010 the European Union announced the number of the satellites to be utilized by the Galileo system will be 32. This is a change from the original number planned of 30. The Galileo program has been plagued by delays and ever growing costs. When first announced in 1999, the total cost was projected to be 4.76 billion dollars and it was planned to be fully operational in 2010. A recent estimate is that it will not be fully operational until 2020 and its total cost will exceed 7 billion dollars. At the present time there are just two Galileo satellites in orbit.