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The UK Defense Ministry has awarded a contract to Airbus’s Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) for an Earth-observation satellite as the country expands its efforts for sovereign space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
SSTL said it has secured the £40 million ($52 million) project that is expected to lead to a launch in 2027.
The Juno spacecraft is part of the UK’s Istari program to develop its own space-based intelligence collection, after decades of largely relying on close ties with Washington are reaching an inflection point. In August, the UK launched an electro-optical Earth-observation satellite, called Tyche, part of several low-Earth-orbit operational concept demonstrators.
“With these Earth-observation satellites on orbit, UK Space Command and defense will be better equipped to conduct all-domain military operations and deliver assured space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the joint force and our allies,” Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton, the head of the Royal Air Force, said in a Nov. 4 statement.
SSTL, in the statement, said Juno will have advanced imagery sensors that build on Tyche. Tyche was never intended as a high-resolution system, and Andrew Cawthorne, SSTL’s managing director, said “Juno will offer a step-change in imaging capability.”
The UK also plans a wideband radio-frequency detection satellite, Titania, which is due for launch in the summer of 2025, and expects to award a contract for a cluster of two to three Oberon synthetic aperture radar satellites.
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