Revolutionary Space Tech Firm Set to Launch New Satellite for Climate Change Monitoring

Daniel Sors Raurell of OpenCosmos satellite tech firm at Harwell Space Campus (Image: Ed Nix)

The UK Space Agency has announced that it will be building a new spacecraft to help scientists monitor climate change and natural disasters. The country will join Portugal and Spain in the Atlantic Constellation project, which is developing a group of satellites to monitor the Earth and provide early detection of climate change indicators.

The UK Space Agency is providing £3 million for a new pathfinder satellite, with co-funding from Open Cosmos, which is based on the Harwell Space Campus at Didcot. This new satellite will provide “valuable and regularly updated data” on the Earth and help detect, monitor and reduce the risk of natural disasters.

Andrew Griffith, minister in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, said: “Earth observation will play an absolutely vital role in tackling global challenges like climate change and disaster relief, providing the data we need at speed, while supporting key UK industries like agriculture and energy.”

By working with Open Cosmos on a new satellite and supporting our Atlantic partners, Spain and Portugal, we can harness space tech for our shared goals, while creating new skills opportunities and jobs for the future to grow the UK economy. This announcement comes on the opening day of the UK Space Conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland.