During the morning of the 63 EUMETSAT Council, Dr. Lars Prahm, Director General of EUMETSAT and Volker Liebig, Director of Earth Observation Programmes at the European Space Agency (ESA) exchanged letters to document the understanding achieved between EUMETSAT and ESA on cooperation and coordination regarding the approval process of the respective MTG programmes in both organisations.
The exchange The understanding notes the preparation status of the MTG programme which is currently in Phase A and sets out to define the agreed next steps. It also defines exact cooperation measures required from both organisations for Phase A and the ensuing Phase B as well as principles for cooperation in the future phases for which an agreement regulating the respective roles, responsibilities and financial commitments of the two organisations will have to be developed in the course of 2008. This Agreement will subsequently be presented to the EUMETSAT and ESA Councils for approval in the second half of 2008.
The letter also lists the principles that would provide the overall context of the respective roles EUMETSAT and ESA roles will take in the planning and execution of the programmes. These principles identify ESA as the development agency for both the basic space segment technologies and the first twin satellites of MTG, for the following satellites ESA would be the procurement agency on behalf of EUMETSAT. EUMETSAT in turn would specify and consolidate End User Requirements, as well as requirements for the overall mission, space to ground and the ground segment itself. EUMETSAT will also be responsible for the overall mission and system engineering and the ground segment design will develop the ground segment and fund the procurement of the recurrent satellites, the launch services and LEOP phases and would execute the commissioning of the MTG system and run its operations.
The exchange The understanding notes the preparation status of the MTG programme which is currently in Phase A and sets out to define the agreed next steps. It also defines exact cooperation measures required from both organisations for Phase A and the ensuing Phase B as well as principles for cooperation in the future phases for which an agreement regulating the respective roles, responsibilities and financial commitments of the two organisations will have to be developed in the course of 2008. This Agreement will subsequently be presented to the EUMETSAT and ESA Councils for approval in the second half of 2008.
The letter also lists the principles that would provide the overall context of the respective roles EUMETSAT and ESA roles will take in the planning and execution of the programmes. These principles identify ESA as the development agency for both the basic space segment technologies and the first twin satellites of MTG, for the following satellites ESA would be the procurement agency on behalf of EUMETSAT. EUMETSAT in turn would specify and consolidate End User Requirements, as well as requirements for the overall mission, space to ground and the ground segment itself. EUMETSAT will also be responsible for the overall mission and system engineering and the ground segment design will develop the ground segment and fund the procurement of the recurrent satellites, the launch services and LEOP phases and would execute the commissioning of the MTG system and run its operations.
