UK's new Earth Observation Hub

The UK Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has awarded a contract to form the first key element of the International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC), an Earth Observation (EO) Hub.

The £4.9m contract has been awarded to a consortium led by top space company Astrium to develop an end to end operations centre on the Harwell campus with the ability to run cost effective satellite flight operations and payload data processing and exploitation.

As the prime industrial contractor, Astrium’s team will include Vega, the professional services company, SSTL, the specialist small satellite manufacturer and Infoterra, a leader in geo-information products.

Prof Keith Mason, Chief Executive, STFC, says:
"The Earth Observation Hub will enable the UK to operate advanced spacecraft and process the data from them, transforming large amounts of complex information into answers to questions on climate change and its effect on our environment, and laying the foundations for new applications of space data."

Read the full press release at
http://www.stfc.ac.uk/News%20and%20Events/19126.aspx