Space blog

SSTL have successfully completed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for NigeriaSat-2. The 300kg satellite will provide Nigeria with valuable geographically referenced high-resolution satellite imaging for applications in mapping, water resources management, agricultural land use, population estimation, health hazard monitoring and disaster mitigation and management, and will enable Nigeria to join the second generation Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC).

The PDR marks a significant milestone for the project and reflects the confidence of Nigeria's National Space Research And Development Agency (NASDRA) that the design proposed by SSTL will achieve their mission objectives.

The next step for NigeriaSat-2 is the Critical Design Review (or CDR). In the interim, SSTL will finalise the design of the NigeriaSat-2 spacecraft and ground segment and plans for the full satellite manufacture will be implemented. This is an exciting period for the small satellite manufacturer, because NigeriaSat-2 will use a new, more agile satellite platform (pictured left).

The PDR included the kick-off for the NX spacecraft, which the Nigerian engineers being trained at SSTL and the University Of Surrey will build alongside NigeriaSat-2 under the supervision of SSTL engineers as part of their Know-How Transfer and Training (KHTT) scheme. The Nigerian engineers presented the work undertaken during their training at SSTL and are preparing for the next stage, Mission Design Review, which will take place in August.

Customer representatives from the National Space Research & Development Agency (NASRDA), along with their technical advisors, Telesat of Canada, attended seven days of meetings at SSTL's headquarters in Guildford as part of the PDR.

NigeriaSat-2 is scheduled for launch in 2009.

Stephen Hawking says that sooner or later the human race must spread into space. This has led Independent journalist Laura Smith to consider the UK space industry's role in the impending space race.

James Penson, a spacecraft systems engineer at Surrey Satellite Technology was interviewed for the piece. He studied physics and then spacecraft systems engineering before joining the company three years ago as a graduate and now he helps design earth observation satellites for monitoring natural disasters and land planning, such as those found in the Disaster Monitoring Constellation. He finds the job "fascinating" and "pretty cool".

This interesting article Out of this world: Get a headstart in the space race considers the UK government's role in space programs such as Exomars (ESA's mission to Mars) and the role of technological innovators such as EADS Astrium and SSTL developing highly sophisticated world-leading technologies for overseas customers that may not make the headlines in the UK.

SSTL have recently recruited more than 30 new staff to support its growing small satellite manufacturing, subsystems and consultancy business.

Prof Sir Martin Sweeting is in the news again this week, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Fly me to the Moon programme last night.

SSTL's Group Executive Chairman, Prof Sir Martin Sweeting, discusses his company's plans to take their world leading small satellite products to the Moon. The programme features former astronaut, Jeff Hoffman, who looks at the new space race as four different nations prepare for lunar reconnaisance missions next year. 'The Main Players' is the first of two programmes.

Listen now

SSTL welcomes the agreement reached at the European Transport Council on today (8th June) on how to move ahead with the Galileo satellite navigation system. The deployment of the system will now be funded by the public sector. "Ministers decided to abandon the public-private partnership and start again from scratch," said European Commission transport spokesman Michele Cercone.

The agreement calls for more competition to be introduced so that the system can be procured quickly for rapid deployment of Galileo by 2012. This means that more innovative and efficient approaches can be adopted and that a wider range of European small and medium sized companies can contribute to the success of Galileo. This will also bring tangible benefits to the governments and the tax-payers investing in the Galileo system, and ultimately to the end user.

The agreement also calls for the procurement strategy to “reflect progress made so far”. Under a €28M contract signed in the second half of 2003, SSTL has already supplied the European Space Agency (ESA) with the very first Galileo satellite, GIOVE-A. GIOVE-A’s primary mission was to broadcast Galileo signals from space so that Europe could claim the frequencies filed for Galileo with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Under the rapidly-paced ESA contract, the satellite was designed, built, tested and launched before the end of 2005 – on-time and on-budget.

Following the signing of the resolution, Group Executive Chairman of SSTL, Sir Martin Sweeting, said:

“Through the GIOVE-A projects SSTL has already shown how small and medium sized companies can play a very significant role in Galileo. Over the coming weeks SSTL will be exploring ways of bringing a much-needed fresh approach to the implementation of Galileo”.

In January 2006, the first Galileo signals were transmitted from the satellite and in March 2006 ESA was able to confirm that it had brought the Galileo-related frequency filings into use, three months ahead of the official deadline. In 2007 GIOVE-A started to broadcast real navigation messages, containing the information needed by user receivers to calculate their position allowing research centres and receiver manufacturers to extend testing of their Galileo receiving equipment.

A recent announcement by ESA stated that “in the near future GIOVE-A will begin to continuously broadcast the navigation message, with the message content being updated whenever the satellite is visible from the Guildford uplink station. The message content will also be extended to include the time offset between GPS and the experimental Galileo system. Knowing this offset will allow the user to build a position fix using GPS satellites and GIOVE-A.” This will also help the research centres and equipment manufacturers to work towards their ultimate goal of user equipment able to work simultaneously with both GPS and Galileo.

Following on from the success of GIOVE-A, in March 2007 ESA placed a contract with SSTL for a second satellite named GIOVE-A2. This additional satellite will help maintain the critical ITU frequency filing secured by its predecessor for a further 27 months, will facilitate further development of ground equipment and may demonstrate additional features of the Galileo System.

Galileo is a joint initiative between ESA and the European Commission. When fully deployed in the early years of the next decade, it will be the first non-military positioning system to offer global coverage. For a light tecnhical discussion of Galileo and the role of GIOVE-A why not listen to the GIOVE-A Podcast (recorded before launch in Decemeber 2005).