ing any satellites other than first ineach the subsequent satellites b-units —the essential to family.Sentinel say They that costsof the the about of contribution its share from 1.5%to around 12%—atotal bypartly offset United the Kingdom increasing from budget. to the be isexpected Theshortfall halve, would which cut more than demanding that its initial contribution at least Italy,support scenes. the behind for instance, is statessome member are not showing same the However, and financial political realities mean Satellite shortfall Europe’s top immediate priorities inspace. and Galileosatellite the navigation system as Europeanthe Union’s states, member rated it madeup of abody Council, ministers the of At ameeting inSeptember, European the Space time. iscrunch ber and ESAministerialmeeting the inNovem- operational system hasyet approved, to be and its atmosphere. But money for the the long-term data on sets state the of planet the will generate continuous, cross-calibrated, scheduled replacements. Thismeans that it satellites over decades,and with regularly ing, but Kopernikus willoperate its of fleet provide data and images monitor- for Earth sentinels’).the Kopernikus satellites (see‘Meet of three families Sentinel the of launchingthe of first members the should778–779; 2008),which cover it through to 2013(see (US$2.6 billion) infunding to carry secured has it far, So and European the Commission. gramme, isajoint venture of ESA ment (GMES)pro- and Security Global Monitoring for Environ- the the project decided. willbe 26 November, at future the which of Spacepean Agency (ESA)from 25to before meeting of acrucial Euro- the to hammer outto try acompromise of negotiationsA flurry isunderway France demanded that cut. costsbe component satellites after Italy and delayspossible to launches the of its system calledKopernikus isfacing Earth-monitoring orbiting an launch to proposal European ambitious An Cash row threatens system Earth-monitoring NATURE Italy and France oppose ESAfund- also Kopernikus enjoys strong political support. Research satellites such asEnvisat already Kopernikus, formerly calledthe | Vol 455 | 23 October2008 € € Nature 1.97 billion 120 million.

450, € 150 million 150 million The Sentinel-3missionisscheduledfor launchin2012. b-units. But decisions at ESAministerial deployment of including Sentinels, the the statesmember support rapid the funding Kopernikus’s fulloperability. acompromiseis to find that doesn’t endanger meetings must unanimous. be Thegoal now pursue its original proposal. therefore fallfar short of what ESAneedsto European Union. Kopernikus’s budget would coverageglobal —should by borne be the ensure long-term data continuity and adequate monitoring atmosphericchemistry. An additionaltwo Sentinelsare plannedfor topography and surface temperatures. imaging andradar altimetrytomeasure Envisat, andwill beequippedwithoptical the ocean- and land-observingaspectsof Sentinel 3: of theUSLandsatandFrench SPOT satellites. fine spectral resolution willcontinue thework Sentinel 2: 8-tonne ESAresearch satellite. build onthedatasetcreated by Envisat, the deployment ofhumanitarian aid.They will environmental studiesandtosupport these satelliteswillbeusefulfor long-term surface,monitoring andmappingEarth's Sentinel 1: Meet thesentinels The contours of that compromise were still Germany, Spain and mostof smaller the Carryingradar equipment for These satelliteswillcontinue A suite of imaging satellites with Asuiteofimagingsatelliteswith D.B. programme to facebudget problems. ESA’s of Kopernikus, isconfident that funding the Declan Butler have missions. both affected Agency inAugust (see was appointed of ashead Italian the Space announced sincebusinessman Saggese Enrico probably neededto keep be mission the alive. greater international participation that will But it should buy timefor the ESAto seek working on lander the must kept be inplace. higher, scientific and asthe engineering teams 2008). Thedelay could push costsup even sophisticated rover (see costsof higher the aproposed larger and more tothanks states’ member reluctance to cover ExoMars delayed mission hasbeen until 2016, to city planning and operations.” emergency ity and water-pollution monitoring and alerts, meteorology, but from for air-qual- everything one, similar to systems the inplace today for an operational monitoring system for every- states. “By 2015Kopernikus offering willbe ofbecause diverging the interests of member “typical of any major European programme” overcome, willbe difficulties and says are they gramme more expensive long inthe term. statesmember money, it could make pro- the delaying launches the may initially save some meetingisterial in2011.Moreover, although The cuts to Italy’s ESAcontributions, Kopernikus isn’t only the European space Josef Aschbacher, of head ESAbranch the would European askthe Commis- for satellites allthe themselves, but planned. ESAwould then still pay it ishighly unlikely to able be to remit to procure future launches, As commission the hasnoclear legal Impending deadlock? lites until at 2014. least would delay launch the of satel- these validation of b-units, the amove that sion launch the to fund and in-orbit instead of council of ministers for willprobably agency the askthe satellites isnow table. off the Instead, say that option the of cancelling any involvedofficials negotiations inthe shifting as the b-unitsthe until nextESAmin- the ment of any decision on funding of anddeadlock aprobable postpone- meeting.rial Thiswould a trigger commit before to this ministe- the Nature € Nature www.nature.com/news news stories,online. Comment onany ofour HAVE YOUR SAY 1 billion asinitially Nature went to press, but

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