SEA SIGNS ?5m TWO-YEAR SPACE EXPLORATION CONTRACT

29th Oct 2009 07:00



29 October 2009

COHORT PLC

SEA SIGNS €5m TWO-YEAR SPACE EXPLORATION CONTRACT

Cohort plc, the independent technology group, today announces that its wholly-owned subsidiary, SEA, has signed a two year, €5m contract to supply Remote Interface Units (RIUs) for the BepiColombo spacecraft mission to explore the planet Mercury.

SEA will provide EADS Astrium GmbH with the RIUs, which will be used for the Mercury Transfer Module and the Mercury Polar Orbiter on the BepiColombo mission, a joint project of ESA and JAXA, the European and Japanese Space Agencies. The BepiColombo mission will study and understand the composition, geophysics, atmosphere, magnetosphere and history of Mercury, the least explored planet in the inner Solar System.

The RIUs will be designed to acquire critical sensor data and telemetry. They will also drive the thrusters that control both the Mercury Planetary Orbiter, which will map the planet, and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, which will investigate the plant's magnetosphere.

Andrew Thomis, Chief Executive of Cohort plc said: 

"This reinforces SEAs position as the UK's premier, independent, space electronic systems company. There are no second chances in space and these spacecraft will be operating more than 48 million miles away in sunlight around ten times more intense than in Earth's orbit."

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For further information, please contact

Cohort plc  Andrew Thomis, Chief Executive Simon Walther, Finance Director	01491 845 630
Investec  Keith Anderson	020 7597 5970
Hogarth Partnership Limited Julian Walker, Andrew Jaques, Vicky Watkins	020 7357 9477

NOTES TO EDITORS

Cohort plc (www.cohortplc.com) is an independent technology group working primarily for defence (air, land and sea), wider government and industry clients, through three market-facing subsidiary companies:

 

MASS (www.mass.co.uk) - a specialist defence and aerospace business focused mainly on electronic warfare, information systems and electronic systems development. Acquired by Cohort in August 2006.

SEA (www.sea.co.uk) - an advanced surveillance systems and software house with hardware development capability operating in the defence, space, transport and offshore market sectors. Acquired by Cohort in October 2007.

Cohort (AIM: CHRT) was admitted to London's Alternative Investment Market in March 2006. It has its headquarters in Oxfordshire and, through its operating companies, employs in total around 500 core staff there and at bases in Bristol, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire and Somerset.

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