The U.K., Portugal, and Spain are partnering on a small-sat constellation to improve disaster monitoring

The U.K. intends to join Spain and Portugal to build a new small-sat constellation to improve climate change research and disaster monitoring.

The U.K. Space Agency announced its plan last week to participate in the Atlantic Constellation project, an initiative led by the Iberian nations, at the U.K. Space Conference in Belfast.

The details

The first phase of the constellation will include four spacecraft—three built by Portugal and one built by the U.K.-based company, Open Cosmos. The U.K. Space Agency will contribute 3M pounds ($3.8M) toward the development of the satellite, according to a statement.

When it’s done, the Atlantic Constellation will include 16 satellites fitted with EO and telecommunications payloads, according to an earlier announcement by Spanish aerospace company Elecnor Deimos. The satellites will measure climate change indicators, provide data for precision agriculture and energy use, and improve disaster monitoring.

Who’s who

In addition to Elecnor Deimos, Spanish new space firms Alén Space, DHV Technology, and SATLANTIS are joining the project.

The announcement doesn’t specify when the first batch of satellites will be launched.

“Building a shared satellite constellation is a very effective way of having high revisit diverse data over each region of interest,” Rafael Jorda Siquier, Open Cosmos chief, said in a statement. “The U.K. joining Portugal and Spain in the Atlantic Constellation is a major step forward in the national Earth Observation strategy, and we are very proud that Open Cosmos has been contracted to deliver the first U.K. pathfinder satellite.

Open Cosmos 101

The satellite company received a 5M pounds ($6.3M) grant from the U.K. Space Agency’s Space Clusters and Infrastructure Fund that it will use to expand its manufacturing and R&D capabilities to become a bigger player in the microsatellite and constellation space, Open Cosmos announced Wednesday. 

The startup also launched two new birds this month to join its OpenConstellation group of sats. The firm also recently raised a $50M Series B from international investors and has hopes for international growth, according to the statement.

This story originally appeared on Payload and is republished here with permission.