British Aerospace Plc will be prime contractor for an $800m polar platform for the European Space Agency, which decided to go ahead with a new environmental satellite, Envisat, which will be mounted on a polar orbit platform built by the plane- and carmaker with partners; costing $1,300m, Envisat is the largest of the satellites programmes that the space agency approved on Tuesday, and the platform is likely to cost some $800m or so.
