ESA Development of Meteosat Third Generation

Marking a significant milestone for Europe's next fleet of meteorological satellites, ESA has given the go-ahead to Thales Alenia Space in France to start work on developing the Meteosat Third Generation.

The 'Preliminary Authorisation To Proceed' was signed today after a kick-off meeting between ESA and Thales Alenia Space.

This approval follows several months of negotiations that has resulted in a final industrial team of Thales Alenia Space (FR) and the initial consortium members, OHB (DE) and Kayser Threde (DE), together with, in a range of complementary functions, Astrium (DE/FR).

Formal introduction of Astrium into the consortium will take place over the next six months. Following on from Meteosat Second Generation, the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) is being created through cooperation between Eumetsat and ESA to ensure continuity of high-resolution meteorological data to beyond 2037.

This next series of geostationary weather satellites will be a step change by providing significant improvements over the capabilities of the current Meteosat generation.

More at ESA Meteosat web portal