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The European Union launched their own satellite system Galileo in between 2005 and 2008, which has recently started operating. Named after the famous Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, this 5 billion euro project will be providing a highly accurate and global positioning service available for both military and civilian control. The system will include of 24 operational satellites with six in-orbit spares.

In contrast to GPS, which is the US navigation system, Galileo will be completely controlled by the civilians. Besides being open for civilians, as per this moment Galileo is providing two types of services. It will be a global search and rescue system. It will do more than just provide navigation signals, Galileo will help in locating the exact position of any mountaineer or any other aircraft in dispair. It will also be a public regulated service for the government authorized users, such as the police.

Apart from the ESA members, other countries that are involved in making Galileo successful as the new navigation system are, India, Morocco, Israel, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine. Even China is indirectly involved in this by, setting up a training university, which focuses on new gadgets so that people can make better use of the navigation possibility.

As of December 2016, there are 16 of 30 satellites in the orbit. After the full constellation and completion, the other remaining Galileo satellites are said to be launched by the year 2020.