Photo: UK Space Agency

Inmarsat has won a new deal with the UK Space Agency, a National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP) contract to develop an in-orbit telemetry relay service for rockets called InRange. The contract announced, announced Friday, is valued at 258,000 pounds ($359,785) with matched funding from industry, taking the project total to 422,096 pounds ($588,619).

Inmarsat’s InRange service aims to reduce the dependency of space launch providers on traditional, expensive ground-based monitoring systems infrastructure for their rockets and will provide a more cost-effective, flexible solution, available globally via Inmarsat’s geostationary L-band network. Inmarsat is working with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to ensure the InRange service develops to meet the challenging environmental conditions experienced by launch vehicles.

“MHI is delighted to work on this innovative project with Inmarsat, Safran Data Systems and Haigh-Farr Inc. We hope that this project will promote further collaborations between U.K. and Japan in the space development industry,” Iwao Igarashi, vice president and general manager of Business Development, Space Systems at MHI, said in a statement.