Following last week’s announcement by Penny Mordaunt, the UK’s Secretary of State for Defence, that the government will invest to fast track the launch of a small satellite constellation, SSTL is pleased to confirm that a Memorandum of Understanding for the RAF’s Team ARTEMIS programme was signed on 19th July 2019 at the Royal International Air Tattoo.
The signing of the MOU took place at the Royal International Air Tattoo and was attended by Chief of Air Staff, Sir Stephen Hillier, the Minister for Defence Procurement, Mr Stuart Andrew, and the associated industry mission partners for Team ARTEMIS.
The photo above shows L-R: Phil Brownett (Head of Airbus CIS UK), Dan Hart (Virgin Orbit President & CEO), Sir Stephen Hillier (Chief of Air Staff), Sarah Parker (Managing Director of SSTL), Richard Daniel (Raytheon UK CEO/MD)
In 2018 the RAF announced that imagery and video data from CARBONITE-2, SSTL’s video-from-orbit technology demonstration satellite, would be used by the Joint Force Command National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence as an operational concept demonstration of how low cost data from small satellites can augment and enhance intelligence products used for strategic decision making, and to support operations and training by the Armed Forces.