A child from every EU country will have his name given to a satellite of the Galileo programme, the European Commission said today.

It said that the child with the best drawing related to space or aeronautics in each Member State will have his or her name given to a satellite.

The first two satellites to be launched on 20 October will bear the names of the winning children from Belgium (Thijs) and Bulgaria (Natalia) where the competition already took place earlier this year.

The European Commission today rolled out the competition in the other 25 Member States to give names to the satellites which will be launched until 2019. Children aged 9–11 can participate. 

Between today and November 15,  children living in the EU and born in 2000, 2001 and 2002 - when the Galileo programme started - are being invited to produce  a drawing related to space and aeronautics, scan or photograph it and upload it onto the competition's website.

In each country, a national jury will select the best drawing and the winning child will have his or her name given to one of the satellites of the Galileo constellation. Satellites launches will take place regularly as of 2012 until the full constellation (which should count 30 satellites) is complete. The order in which the names of the children will be given to the satellites is determined by the alphabetical order of the member states written in the national language(s).

The competition can be accessed at http://www.galileocontest.eu/en/competition. In Malta, details are expected to be announced when the school year opens.

The Galileo Programme is Europe's own venture into the field of satellite navigation. It is putting in place a global satellite navigation system similar to GPS. With the ever growing importance of satellite navigation applications for both businesses and citizens, Galileo will ensure the independence of Europe in this important domain, securing the availability of those applications.