Space blog

Gaileo is turning out to be a hot topic at this year's Paris Air Show. On the 15th June ESA and Arianespace signed a contract for the launch of the first four operational Galileo satellites on two Soyuz launch vehicles from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Also this week, ESA and the OHB/SSTL consortium signed a contract for sourcing long-lead items for Galileo satellites.

The Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) Launch Services Contract covers the launch of the first four operational Galileo satellites using two Soyuz launch vehicles that will lift off from the Guiana Space Centre (Centre Spatial Guyanais – CSG), Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

This new development follows the successful launch of the GIOVE-A satellite which was built by SSTL and the GIOVE-B satellite which was to be built by the European Satellite Navigation Industries satellite consortium and ultimately completed by Astrium. Both satellites have provided a great deal of data, for example helping with with clock characterisation, Galileo signal testing and in understanding the radiation that future Galileo satellites such as the new IOV satellites can expect in Medium Earth orbit (MEO).

The signature of the IOV Launch Services Contract in Paris marks an important milestone for the Galileo programme as it progresses towards the operational deployment of the satellites of the Galileo satellite navigation system. The four IOV satellites will be placed in a circular orbit at an altitude of MEO of 23 600 km by the end of 2010. Development of the Galileo system is being carried out under a joint ESA/European Union programme.

The launch vehicle chosen to carry the four Galileo IOV satellites into orbit is the Soyuz ST-B with a Fregat MT upper stage, which has been adapted for the deployment needs of the Galileo programme. The Soyuz at CSG Programme is an ESA Programme with co-funding of Arianespace and the European Union.

Galileo operational constellation
Meanwhile, ESA and the bidder consortium led by OHB-System AG and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) have signed a contract for sourcing long-lead items for satellites for the future European Galileo navigation system in Paris the same week. The EUR 10 million contract is carried out under a program initiated and funded by the European Union.

Through this contract, OHB and SSTL are able to place orders for satellite technologies which require considerable lead times for development and sourcing ahead of the award of the actual contract for the construction of the satellites. The Galileo System customers, the European Union and the ESA, are thus ensuring that the schedule for implementation of Galileo can be maintained.

OHB and SSTL are one of two consortia bidding for the development and con-struction of 28 satellites for Galileo. By allowing two consortia to build spacecraft for this significant undertaking, ESA is ensuring that the full operational capa-bility can be put in place as soon as possible and at best value to the EU. The system is to be fully operational by 2013 following full contract signature later in 2009.

SSTL and ISC Kosmotras are celebrating 10 years of successful cooperation, since the SSTL minisatellite UoSAT-12 made history as the first successful orbital injection by the Dnepr launch vehicle in April 1999.

Vladamir Andreev, the Director General of ISC Kosmotras explained the importance of the launch to Kosmotras and SSTL

This occasion is a remarkable event in the activity of our two companies. For SSTL, this was an important step in the progress of space technologies, and for ISC Kosmotras the first orbital launch of the Dnepr launch vehicle.

Dnepr is based upon the SS-18 strategic missile, one of the world’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles. Only minor modifications were required to adapt the rocket that was originally built to fire carry nuclear payloads into the highly reliable satellite launch vehicle that it is today.

Sir Martin Sweeting, Executive Chairman of SSTL, added

The introduction of Dnepr as a cost-effective launch solution suited to small satellites was clearly a new and important development and one which has since been proved through a series of successful small satellite launches. As SSTL’s first minisatellite, UoSAT-12 represented a correspondingly important technological development for the Company, paving the way for the GIOVE-A mission seven years later.

UoSAT-12 was a demonstration mission, designed and built in Guildford, UK by SSTL as a £5.5 million research and development project. The 350kg satellite demonstrated advanced high resolution multispectral and panchromatic Earth observation payloads, low Earth orbit microwave digital communications and a number of novel propulsion and attitude control technologies.

For SSTL, UoSAT-12 was the first in a series of successful Dnepr launches, including Malaysia’s first microsatellite, TiungSat, in September 2000. ISC Kosmotras was also selected for the complex launch of the 5-satellite RapidEye constellation in August 2008. During the summer of 2009, Dnepr will also launch two new DMC satellites built by SSTL: UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1.

You can see the Dnepr in action launching the RapidEye constellation that SSTL built for MDA below.



Cooperation with the Russian launch providers is seen by SSTL as a key ingredient in its small satellite programme, which has never failed to satisfy a customer’s launch requirements. By working closely with partners such as Commercial Space Technologies (CST), SSTL’s experienced team has become adept at filtering through the launch markets to find suitable, and sometimes innovative, solutions for the launch of customer satellites.

Through its newly formed subsidiary, Surrey Satellite Services Limited, SSTL has the long term vision of creating a northern latitude launch capability to satisfy the growing demand for the efficient delivery of sun synchronous, polar low Earth orbit and highly inclined satellite systems, as well as responding to the needs of operational responsive space.

If you're reading Space Blog then there's a good chance you're going to be interested in joining some lively debate about the new race for the Moon. Nick Campbell, Managing Editor of Nature magazine will host Nature's evening debate "Racing to the Moon" in King's Place, London on the 11th May.

The discussion will be chaired by BBC News Science Correspondent Christine McGourty.

Four decades after the first Moon landings, the original space-racers have been joined by China, India, South Korea, even Nigeria. Why do we still need manned missions? Does space exploration need countries to cooperate, or does it benefit from the oxygen of international conflict and mistrust?

Sir Martin Sweeting will speak as the Director of the Surrey Space Centre and chairman of Surrey Satellite Technology Limited. SSTL was founded at a time when the satellite business was a duopoly between NASA and the Soviet Union and experienced - and influenced - the seismic changes within the industry. During this time his original staff of four has since grown to 300. He says that the new space-rush can be compared to the gold rush in 1880s America.

Only last year SSTL's onboard computer (OBC) was spurred into action to control the Mini-SAR onboard the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter in the search for water-ice on the Moon.

The MoonLITE and MoonRAKER concepts are also under development in a British consortium that includes SSTL and other UK space companies and research facilities.

What has focussed the "gold rush" in space more than the race to the Moon? If this sounds like old news to you, then Space Blog would like to point you towards London for this event to find out about the new race for the Moon that is fast building speed. This is the first of two King's Place summer events organized by the weekly science journal Nature - you can find out more from this link.

SSTL and its new owner EADS-Astrium have announced the creation of a new ”Space Engineering Innovation Hub” in conjunction with the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK. The new venture that was highlighted by Sir Martin Sweeting when the sale of SSTL was announced in January, and now work is storming ahead to put the necessary funding and structures in place.

The new hub will combine academic research and commercial exploitation to develop technologies that “change the economics of space” by providing rapid-response, low-cost, highly capable space missions. This has been reflected the creation of in a a prestigious new Research Chair in Space Engineering at the Surrey Space Centre. The new Chair will be jointly sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering and SSTL. Applications are already flooding in - so if you fancy the challenging the current economics of space with innnovative new technologies, and helping the UK stay at the forefront of International space research then now's the time to start!

UK Space Minister Lord Drayson commented

Surrey is a shining example of innovation in the UK space sector, leading the world in pioneering new and more affordable approaches to space and its applications. I applaud the imagination and commitment of the Academy and SSTL in their investment in the future of Britain in space.

Robert Barrett of the Royal Academy of Engineering added:

The Academy strongly supports the effective combination of academia and industry through our prestigious Research Chairs Scheme – this new professorship at the Surrey Space Centre is an example of the Academy’s commitment to linking industry with academia.

SSTL has built and launched 32 small satellites and has eight more under construction carrying Earth observation, navigation, communications and space science payloads. The Surrey Space Centre and SSTL are currently working on an exciting UK-led small satellite mission to the Moon in 2012.