The next generation of European Meteosat’s have been delayed after the European Space Agency revealed that it needed more time to choose the best developer for the programme. The scheme, which will see a new series of weather satellites launched to provide data until 2040, will now be pushed back by a further three months.
Whilst an official decision was originally expected this week, the scale of the programme has meant that the Space Agency want extra time to decide the best competitor for the contract. Costing approximately 3.4bn euros the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) programme will ensure new, advanced weather data for at least the next 20-odd years.
Speaking of the decision to delay a decision on whether EADS Astrium of Germany or Thales Alenia Space of France should begin development, Earth Observation’s agency director Volker Liebig explained “Both are good but both have weaknesses, and we want to give both constructors the opportunity to improve. We will ask them to deliver by the end of January their new reports, in time for our Industrial Policy Committee in March.”
With a history stretching back to 1977, the new Meteosat series will include both a sounding spacecraft with abilities to access data regarding different atmosphere levels, and an imaging spacecraft. Currently Meteosat-8 and Meteosat-9 provide vital weather information for the European region. The contractor for the programme will now be decided in 2010, ahead of MTG meetings in March.
