Galileo

Speaking of boosting efforts for space technology, the US is strongly
opposing Europe's own global navigation satellite system, on the ground that
it will threaten US security since it won't be under direct control of the
US army like GPS, or according to the cynics, because it will break the US
monopoly in GPS technology... how do you deal with issues like these?
As long as space technology is the cutting edge of military systems I think
international cooperation on any project is very unlikely... that's why I
was saying that even if someone will come up with a fantastic new technology
that will drastically reduce orbital launch costs, being a space elevator, a
rotosomething or whatever, it will also need to be a US based operation,
because unless it is a US company it won't stand many chances of success,
the military implications are so enormous that the US will stop it unless
they have complete control of it... not trying to shift the discussion
toward politics, just pointing out that the economical aspects are not the
only factor in play in colonising space...
Just another reason why China won't do it for us I guess... :)