Scouts win once in a lifetime trip to Inmarsat satellite launch

Simon and Craig were chosen as the two winners against hundreds of entrants for their answers to the question ‘How do you think satellites in space will help improve life on Earth in the future?’ Scouts supports young people to develop skills for life. Craig and Simon used those skills to develop their competition entries. 

Simon and Craig’s winning entries were judged by Scouts’ Ambassador and world-famous astronaut Tim Peake, who praised the teenagers’ technical knowledge and creativity.

“We were incredibly impressed by the overall quality of entries, but these two really caught our eye. They used their Scout skills to develop their ideas to reduce the environmental impact of data storage by building a ‘space cloud web’ and harness clean solar energy from satellites. That is exactly the kind of ingenuity and innovation we need for the future of space.”

Scouts from all over the UK entered the competition, with many entries focusing on how space can help care for the planet. Judges were particularly wowed with the advanced level of knowledge about space, satellites, and the possibilities of future innovation on show.

During the five-day trip, Simon and Craig will tour NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and watch the launch of Inmarsat’s latest I-6 F2 spacecraft – the most sophisticated commercial communications satellite ever built – with VIPs.

The company is launching the satellite to upgrade its global communications services and build its revolutionary network of the future, ORCHESTRA. The network will provide communications across land, sea, and air in the future and support futuristic technologies like flying taxis and uncrewed aerial vehicles.

About Inmarsat

Inmarsat delivers world leading, innovative, advanced and exceptionally reliable global, mobile communications across the world – in the air, at sea and on land - that are enabling a new generation of commercial, government and mission-critical services. Inmarsat is powering the digitalisation of the maritime industry, making operations more efficient and safer than ever before. It is driving a new era of inflight passenger services for aviation, while ensuring that aircraft can fly with maximum efficiency and safety. Furthermore, Inmarsat is enabling the rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) and enabling the next wave of world-changing technologies that will underpin the connected society and help build a sustainable future. And now Inmarsat is developing the first-of-its-kind, multi-dimensional communications network of the future, ORCHESTRA.

In November 2021, Inmarsat and Viasat announced the planned combination of the two companies, to create a new leader in global communications.

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About Scouts

• All genders, races and backgrounds are welcome at Scouts. Every week, it gives almost half a million people aged 4-25 the skills they need for school, college, university, the job interview, the important speech, the tricky challenge and the big dreams: the skills they need for life.
• Scouts helps members gain these skills by encouraging them to ask the big questions and listen with wide open minds. It helps them to take a deep breath and speak up, think on their feet, ignore the butterflies and go for it. With Scouts, young people don’t give up – they get back up and try again, often with the support of the friends they’ve made there.   
• Our volunteers contribute more than 50 million hours of voluntary work each year to their local communities.