Airbus Defence and Space (UK) has carried out a study to investigate the possibilities for an operational space weather mission, in collaboration with the Met Office, RAL, MSSL and Imperial College London. The study looked at the user requirements for an operational mission, a model instrument payload, and a mission/spacecraft concept. A particular focus is cost effectiveness and timelineness of the data, suitable for 24/7 operational forecasting needs. We have focussed on a mission at L5 assuming that a mission to L1 will already occur, on the basis that L5 (earth trailing) offers the greatest benefit for the earliest possible warning on hazardous SWE events and the most accurate SWE predictions. The baseline payload has been selected to cover all UK Met Office/NOAA’s users priorities using instruments with extensive UK/US heritage, consisting of: a heliospheric imager, coronograph, magnetograph/EUV imager, magnetometer, solar wind analyser and radiation monitor. The platform and subsystems are based on extensive re-use from past Airbus missions to minimize the cost and a Falcon-9 launcher has been selected on the same basis. A schedule analysis shows that the earliest launch could occur in 2020, assuming Phase A KO in 2015-2016. The study team have selected the name “Carrington” for the mission, reflecting the UK’s proud history in this domain. The design could easily fit to a potential UK/US bilateral mission with UK providing the S/C and most of the payloads and US providing the launcher, ground segment and a payload.