this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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The launch costs of Galileo satellites were much cheaper than 400 millions per satellite. The budget you mention covers the global development, deployment and continuous operation of the project.
They used ariane 5 rockets to send 2 satellites at a price tag of 150-200 million. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_5#:~:text=Total%20launch%20price%20of%20an,million%20as%20of%20January%202015
Compare that with the price of a Falcon 9.
Except they launched them 4 at a time on Ariane 5 (which has similar capacity as falcon, so doubtful they would launch much more at a time with space, also it was available at the time of the start of the project...), and two at a time on the cheaper Soyouz. Also, it's way better to pay even 200 million (more likely less than 150 millions) to domestic companies to boost your own economy than to pay 70 million to your number one competitor...