Making the International Space Innovation Centre a reality

8th August 2010

David Willetts, the science minister has announced that a £4.9m contract has been awarded to build an Earth Observation Hub at the International Space Innovation Centre at the Harwell Campus in Science Vale UK .

The hub will enable the UK to manage spacecraft operations and process the information collected by future space missions.

The contract has gone to a consortium led by Astrium and the hub will be amongst the first in Europe that will actively encourage direct collaboration between government, industry and academics.

Mr Willets said:

“The Earth Observation Hub will help UK scientists make the most of the wealth of information we are collecting about our home planet, in vital areas such as monitoring the effects of climate change or so we can respond quickly to natural disasters throughout the world.

“It’s the important first step in making the International Space Innovation Centre a reality, linking regional space capabilities and promoting knowledge-sharing between academia and industry. This will support further growth in a sector already worth more than £6 billion a year to our economy.”