nothing on that specifically. initially, they said that decisions would be made about covid certifications in september. testing will clearly be a part of the mix as well. but the hope is by that stage, the case numbers will be down and hopefully things will start to return to normal. the uk telecommunications industry hopes a satellite that has gone into orbit will help maintain its global leadership in the sector. a quarter of the world s big telecoms spacecraft are manufactured in britain, and the new quantum platform is billed as the market s next generation product. quantum was launched on an ariane rocket here s our science correspondentjonathan amos. another rocket climbs skyward to bolster a sector that europe, and the uk in particular, has come to dominate the business of telecommunications satellites. there are hundreds of these spacecraft overhead, bouncing tv, phone calls, broadband and other data services around the planet.
gone into orbit will help maintain its global leadership in the sector. a quarter of the world s big telecoms spacecraft are manufactured in britain, and the new quantum platform is billed as the market s next generation product. quantum was launched on an ariane rocket, from french guiana, last night. here s our science correspondent, jonathan amos. another rocket climbs skyward to bolster a sector that europe, and the uk in particular, has come to dominate the business of telecommunications satellites. there are hundreds of these spacecraft overhead, bouncing tv, phone calls, broadband and other data services around the planet. but the new satellite going into orbit, called quantum, represents a big step forward in technology. while traditional telecom spacecraft are configured before launch to do very specific tasks, quantum has been built forflexibility. it is the sector s first fully reprogrammable spacecraft. it s able to rapidly change the coverage, bandwidth,