Helios II satellite (image courtesy of Thales Alenia Space) The European Defence Agency's EDA Steering Board has agreed to approve a project for the next generation of European military earth observation satellites.

This Multinational Space-based Imaging System (MUSIS) project has been launched by six European Union Member States: Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Italy and Spain. The project has now become an EDA Category B project and will be open to participation of other EDA participating Member States, if their proposed contribution is acceptable to the existing contributing Members. The Agency's Capability Development Plan (CDP) considers space-based imaging capacities essential for ESDP missions. The MUSIS project aims at establishing a multinational space-based imaging system for surveillance, reconnaissance and observation to ensure continuity of services from the current French Helios II, German SAR LUPE and Italian Cosmo-Skymed and Pleiades systems, from 2015-2017 onwards. One of the roles for EDA will be to seek synergies with earth observation programmes on the civilian side, in particular with the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program of the European Commission.