Britain could soon have a privately financed, national Earth-observation (EO) service, if plans currently under consideration come to fruition.
It could launch UK-built satellites to acquire imagery for the MoD and other government departments, while selling other data on the open market.
The project has been dubbed "Skysight" after the City-backed Skynet system which provides a commercial satellite telecoms service to the armed forces.
A report on the idea is being drawn up.
The Science Minister David Willetts has asked that its findings be delivered by the end of the year so that a view can be taken on the Earth observation project's feasibility.
"There is across government a splintered market in the purchase and use of Earth observation data, I have asked the UK Space Agency to work with industry on how to achieve smarter government procurement, potentially through a single contract. I am also interested to know whether the UK has a sovereign need for its own EO satellite system and whether this can be procured through an 'anchor tenancy' with industry."
At the moment, the UK has no national fleet of EO spacecraft, even though its scientists and engineers have a strong reputation for building Earth imaging satellites and instrumentation, and for developing innovative data processing techniques.
If government needs EO data it buys the information, much of it coming from foreign-built and operated spacecraft.
More over at www.bbc.co.uk