Cohort plc has announced its wholly-owned subsidiary, SEA, has signed a two year, 5 million euros contract to supply Remote Interface Units (RIUs) for the BepiColombo spacecraft mission to explore the planet Mercury. SEA will provide EADS Astrium GmbH with the RIUs, which will be used for the Mercury Transfer Module and the Mercury Polar Orbiter on the BepiColombo mission, a joint project of ESA and JAXA, the European and Japanese Space Agencies.

The BepiColombo mission will study and understand the composition, geophysics, atmosphere, magnetosphere and history of Mercury, the least explored planet in the inner Solar System. The RIUs will be designed to acquire critical sensor data and telemetry. They will also drive the thrusters that control both the Mercury Planetary Orbiter, which will map the planet, and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, which will investigate the plant's magnetosphere.