SEA starts work on a European Space contract worth £12M
SEA (Group) Ltd is pleased to announce that it has been authorised by the German satellite prime contractor EADS
Astrium GmbH, to proceed with work on a new contract that will be worth circa £12M for the development and
supply of the Broad-Band Radiometer (BBR) instrument of the EarthCARE satellite.
SEA’s BBR team, which has been working together for some time leading up to this award, is predominantly UK-
based and includes the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and Sula.
The company also has a smaller role on another of EarthCARE’s instruments, the Cloud Profiling Radar, which is
being supplied for the mission by the Japanese Space Agency.
EarthCARE is the third of the European Space Agency’s Earth Explorer Core Missions and is aimed at improving
the understanding of interactions between clouds, aerosols and radiation – three factors believed to be important in
the understanding of global warming. The Broad-Band Radiometer will serve to confirm the radiated energy
estimates, which will be derived from the profiles of clouds and aerosols measured by the other instruments.
Ian Dale-Staples, SEA’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “This is another terrific win and underlines SEA’s
strategic commitment to establish itself as an important UK supplier of spacecraft instruments.”