U.K. Ministry of Defence Awards Lockheed Martin Contract to Develop a Flexible Satellite Mission Control System

The U.K. Ministry of Defence has awarded Lockheed Martin a research and development contract to provide a secure, open source, ground-segment software solution to task, monitor and control its future space capabilities.

The U.K. MOD’s BEROE programme will assist the MOD to understand how best to control its future ISTARI constellation of low orbit general purpose Earth observation satellites, further enhancing the U.K.’s multi-domain integration efforts.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to work alongside DE&S on this exciting project. Working collaboratively we were able to identify a solution that is a modular, flexible mission control system – based on commercial off-the-shelf open source software – which we’ve already proven on many of our military and commercial space missions.” said Nik Smith, UK and Europe regional director for Lockheed Martin.

“This is a pivotal moment for UK Defence and the UK Space Sector as we develop software capabilities and strategic partnerships that will determine the future of how we manage our activities in space,” said Commodore David Moody, head of space capability, UK Space Command. “This project will help define and understand how we will control and optimise the use of our satellites in a safe and sustainable way, while also supporting the wider goal of enabling growth in the Space Sector to develop resilient space capabilities and services.”