Creotech Instruments has successfully completed direct negotiations with the European Space Agency (ESA) on setting the terms of the project covering the next phases of development and production of a key component of the measuring instrument for the Comet Interceptor space mission. The value of the contract amounts to almost EUR 1.8 million, the company announced. The acquired contract related to the production of the flight system is the largest contract negotiated by the company with the European Space Agency so far.
At the end of 2021, Creotech Instruments was invited by the University of Bern in Switzerland to participate in the F-class mission – Comet Interceptor. The project is run by the European Space Agency in cooperation with the Japanese Aerospace Agency, as part of the Cosmic Vision programme. (…)
“The prospect of obtaining raw materials that are rare on Earth or exploring objects outside the Solar System makes projects related to the study of comets gain more and more importance. One of the more ambitious missions of this kind is the Comet Interceptor mission, which not only captures the imagination, but also provides an excellent opportunity to study objects in deep space, especially comets that have spent little time in the inner solar system or are visiting it for the first time. (…) We have just completed the key and final stage of direct negotiations with ESA, in which we agreed on the terms of the project, worth almost EUR 1.8 million. (…)” – said the president of Creotech Instruments Grzegorz Brona, quoted in the release.
The probe will be launched in 2029 to a distance of about 1.5 million km from Earth. In the first stage, the probe will be placed in a “parking orbit” at the Earth-Sun gravitational balance point L2, where it will wait up to three years for a suitable target. (…)
Creotech Instruments is the largest Polish company that produces and supplies space technologies and specialized electronics and apparatus to the global market, including for the needs of quantum computers, quantum cryptography or laboratories of quantum physics and high energy. The company debuted on the main market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange in July 2022, moving from the NewConnect market.