Open Cosmos welcomes Lord Dominic Johnson, Minister for Investment, to Harwell facilities

n a recent tour of the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Lord Dominic Johnson, Minister for Investment, visited the Open Cosmos facilities to learn more about the company and our role in the UK space industry. 

The Minister, who was appointed to his most recent position in November 2022, was on the Harwell campus to understand the developments taking place in Oxford and how these could potentially help the UK become a global science superpower.

During his visit to our facilities, the Minister was able to learn about the OpenConstellation - our global shared satellite constellation - and visit the clean room to see how and where these satellites are manufactured. On site was MANTIS, a 12U Earth Observation nanosatellite, funded by the UK Space Agency through the European Space Agency InCubed programme and due to join the OpenConstellation when it launches later this year.

VP, Operations and Co-Founder, Aleix Megias, said of the visit:

"It was fantastic to welcome Lord Johnson to the Open Cosmos offices, and even better to be able to show him a satellite ready to be shipped for launch. This illustrates Open Cosmos' capability to design, manufacture and operate in-country, a great example of the maturity of the UK satellite sector."

VP, Growth, Florian Deconinck continued:

“Lord Johnson’s role is an important part of ensuring economic growth for the country. MANTIS is part of the OpenConstellation initiative for scaling space infrastructure affordably and we were glad to share Open Cosmos’ plans for growth and the associated opportunity for the UK”