The European Space Agency (ESA) will pay OHB Sweden more than 32 million euros ($38 million) to build a prototype satellite that could end up evolving into a larger weather satellite constellation. Under the terms of the contract announced Tuesday, OHB will lead an industrial consortium that will produce a polar-orbiting spacecraft that can provide high-resolution humidity and temperature soundings of the atmosphere for ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite mission. The consortium includes Omnisys Sweden, which will build the system’s microwave radiometer, and Thales Alenia Space, which will provide the ground segment. The ESA polar-orbiting Arctic Weather Satellite mission is designed to complement its cooperative MetOp program with