A team of students from the University of Southampton have won awards for developing a system that could transform spacecraft control.

The Meta Futura Aerospace team is made up of five Aerospace Engineering students from across Europe.

Their Meta Flex invention - designed for space organisations, satellite operators and research institutions - allows spacecraft to rotate in any direction, lending itself to more advanced missions.

The team consists University of Southampton students Nestoras Papageorgiou, 21, Pedro Rodriguez, 21, Fabrizio Pisani, 22, Marcin Badowski, 23, and Elena Carulla, 21.

Nestoras said: “Thank you to Engineers In Business Fellowship for hosting and organising the event, and congratulations to all the other finalists who showcased their great ideas.

“This is one more step of an exciting journey and we look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead.”

On Friday, November 3, the group won two prizes at the Engineering in Business Champion of Champions grand final at the Royal Academy of Engineering.

The team picked up top prize in the Big Ideas category, winning £3,000 and mentorship to help them take their business idea to the next level.

They also won the in-show Audience Prize of £500.

Nestoras continued: “This money will go straight into developing our first prototype to accelerate the process and increase the different types of capabilities it will have.”

The team also received CV packages from PurpleCV and entrepreneurial books from Cambridge University Press and Double your Price, a book by David Falzani MBE, which covers how pricing works with practical insights, tools and guidance.

The event was a celebration of a year of enterprise competitions held across UK universities, with thousands of undergraduate and graduates taking part.

Each year, Engineers in Business Fellowship supports universities by giving them grants to award prizes to engineering students who develop ideas that can make a positive impact on society.