One of the modern incarnations of the space race is the scramble to create global navigation satellites systems, like the Global Positioning System. GPS has become one of the foundations of a modern technological society.
But the system is owned and operated by the U.S. military who can switch it off, or make it accessible only to their own forces, at any time. Such a move would be disastrous for other nations.
That’s why they want their own versions. Russia has developed GLONASS, a global system of 24 satellites; China has BeiDou, consisting of 35 satellites and Europe has a constellation of 30 satellites called Galileo.
These systems are remarkably similar. They consist of a relatively small number of space vehicles orbiting in medium-Earth orbit or beyond, at altitudes greater than 2,000 km and usually closer to 20,000 km.
They are also hugely expensive. For example, Galileo cost €10 billion ...
