UK to build new satellite to monitor climate crisis and natural disasters

Europe from space at night. The UK’s new craft will be part of a group of satellites being developed to provide ‘valuable and regularly updated data’ to help tackle the climate crisis. Photograph: buradaki/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The UK will help fund and build a new spacecraft that will help scientists monitor the climate crisis and natural disasters.

The new pathfinder satellite will be funded with £3m from the UK Space Agency, joining Spain and Portugal in the €80m (£70m) Atlantic Constellation project. Co-funding will be provided by Open Cosmos, based on the Harwell campus in Oxfordshire.