Surrey Satellite Technology

Last updated

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd
Type Subsidiary
Industry Aerospace
Founded Guildford, Surrey, UK (1985) [1]
Headquarters Guildford, Surrey
Key people
 Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, Group Executive Chairman
Phil Brownnett, MD from January 2020
Products Satellites and related services
Revenue£2.6m on £92m sales for FY 2011. [2] £30m turnover, £1.5m pre-tax profit were expected for FY 2006. [3]
Number of employees
350
Website www.sstl.co.uk

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a company involved in the manufacture and operation of small satellites. A spin-off company of the University of Surrey, it is presently wholly owned by Airbus Defence and Space.

Contents

The company began out of research efforts centred upon amateur radio satellites, known by the UoSAT (University of Surrey Satellite) name or by an OSCAR (Orbital Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio) designation. SSTL was founded in 1985, following successful trials on the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components on satellites, cumulating in the UoSat-1 test satellite. It funds research projects with the university's Surrey Space Centre, which does research into satellite and space topics.

In April 2008, the University of Surrey agreed to sell its majority share in the company to European multinational conglomerate EADS Astrium. In August 2008, SSTL opened a US subsidiary, which included both offices and a production site in Denver, Colorado; [4] in 2017, the company decided to discontinue manufacturing activity in the US, winding up this subsidiary. [5]

SSTL was awarded the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement in 1998, and the Queen's Awards for Enterprise in 2005. In 2006 SSTL won the Times Higher Education award for outstanding contribution to innovation and technology. [6] In 2009, SSTL ranked 89 out of the 997 companies that took part in the Sunday Times Top 100 companies to work for. [7]

In 2020, SSTL started the creation of a telecommunications spacecraft called Lunar Pathfinder for lunar missions. [8] It will be launched in 2025 and used for data transmission to Earth. [9]

History

Background and early years

During the early decades of the Cold War era, access to space was effectively the privilege of a handful of superpowers; by the 1970s, only the most affluent of countries could afford to engage in space programmes due to extreme complexity and expenses involved. [10] Despite the exorbitant costs to produce and launch, early satellites could only offer limited functionality, having no ability to be reprogrammed once in orbit. During the late 1970s, a group of researchers at the University of Surrey, headed by Martin Sweeting, were experimenting with the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components in satellite construction; if found viable, such techniques would be highly disruptive to the established satellite industry. [10]

The team's first satellite, UoSAT-1, was assembled in a small university lab, using in a cleanroom fabricated from B&Q and integrating printed circuit boards designed by hand on a kitchen table. [10] In 1981, UoSAT-1 was launched with NASA's aid; representing the first modern reprogrammable small satellite, it outlived its planned three-year life by more than five years. Having successfully demonstrated that relatively compact and inexpensive satellites could be rapidly built to perform sophisticated missions, the team decided to take further steps to commercialise their research. [10]

During 1985, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) was founded in Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom as a spin-off venture from the university. [10] Since its founding, it has steadily grown, having worked with numerous international customers to launch over 70 satellites over the course of three decades. [10]

Growth and restructuring

In 2002, SSTL moved into remote sensing services with the launch of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) and an associated child company, DMC International Imaging. Some of these satellites also include other imaging payloads and experimental payloads: onboard hardware-based image compression (on BilSAT), a GPS reflectometry experiment and onboard Internet router (on the UK-DMC satellite). The DMC satellites are notable for communicating with their ground stations using the Internet Protocol for payload data transfer and command and control, so extending the Internet into space, and allowing experiments with the Interplanetary Internet to be carried out. [11] [12] Many of the technologies used in the design of the DMC satellites, including Internet Protocol use, were tested in space beforehand on SSTL's earlier UoSAT-12 satellite. [13] [14]

During June 2004, American private space company SpaceX arranged to acquire a 10% stake in SSTL from Surrey University; speaking on the purchase, Elon Musk stated: "SSTL is a high-quality company that is probably the world leader in small satellites. We look at this as more a case of similar corporate cultures getting together". [15] The University of Surrey then awarded Musk an honorary doctorate. In April 2008, the University of Surrey agreed to sell its majority share in SSTL, roughly 80% of the company's capital, to European multinational conglomerate EADS Astrium. [16] SSTL has remained an independent entity despite all shares having been purchased by Airbus, the parent company of EADS Astrium. [10]

During 2005, SSTL completed construction of GIOVE-A1, the first test satellite for Europe's Galileo space navigation system. [17] [18] In 2010 and 2012, the firm was awarded contracts to supply 22 navigation payloads for Galileo, the last of which was delivered during 2016. [19] During 2017, SSTL was awarded a contract to supply a further 12 payloads; this was viewed as a coup in light of the political backdrop surrounding Brexit. [20] [21]

During the 2010s, SSTL has been working on various improvements in its satellite technology, such as synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) as well as smaller and lighter units. According to Luis Gomes, SSTL's head of Earth observation, micro-satellites translate to a lower cost of design, construction and launch, albeit at a cost of a more frequent failure rate, in comparison to larger and more costly units. [22] These features has been marketed towards customers such as the DMC. [23]

In summer 2008, Surrey formed an American subsidiary, Surrey Satellite Technology-US, in Englewood, Colorado, intent on serving US customers in the smallsat market. In June 2017, SSTL announced their intention to close their Colorado satellite manufacturing facility, opting to instead consolidate all of its manufacturing activity in the UK. Sarah Parker, SSTL's managing director, said that the rapid growth of new competing firms in the small satellite sector had changed the marketplace, necessitating reorganisation, which has included the increased use of outsourcing. [4] [5]

Satellites

See also

Between 2010 and 2020 SSTL manufactured and delivered 34 navigation payloads for the deployment phase of Galileo, Europe's satellite navigation system. OHB System AG was the prime contractor and builder of the spacecraft platform and SSTL had full responsibility for the navigation payloads, the brains of Galileo's navigation system. [44] [45] [46]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galileo (satellite navigation)</span> Global navigation satellite system

Galileo is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) that went live in 2016, created by the European Union through the European Space Agency (ESA), operated by the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, with two ground operations centres in Fucino, Italy, and Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. The €10 billion project is named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. One of the aims of Galileo is to provide an independent high-precision positioning system so European political and military authorities do not have to rely on the US GPS, or the Russian GLONASS systems, which could be disabled or degraded by their operators at any time. The use of basic (lower-precision) Galileo services is free and open to everyone. A fully encrypted higher-precision service is available for free to government-authorized users. Galileo is intended to provide horizontal and vertical position measurements within 1 m precision. Galileo is also to provide a new global search and rescue (SAR) function as part of the MEOSAR system.

GIOVE, or Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element, is the name for two satellites built for the European Space Agency (ESA) to test technology in orbit for the Galileo positioning system.

CLEO - Cisco router in Low Earth Orbit, is an Internet router from Cisco Systems that was integrated into the UK-DMC Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellite built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) as a secondary experimental hosted payload, and launched into space with the satellite from Plesetsk on 27 September 2003.

The Disaster Monitoring Constellation for International Imaging (DMCii) or just Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) consists of a number of remote sensing satellites constructed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and operated for the Algerian, Nigerian, Turkish, British and Chinese governments by DMC International Imaging. The DMC provides emergency Earth imaging for disaster relief under the International Charter for Space and Major Disasters, which the DMC formally joined in November 2005. Other DMC Earth imagery is used for a variety of civil applications by a variety of governments. Spare available imaging capacity is sold under contract.

UoSAT-12 is a British satellite in Low Earth Orbit. It is the twelfth satellite in the University of Surrey series and was designed and built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL). It was launched into orbit in April 1999 on board a Dnepr rocket from Yasny Russia.

Astrium was an aerospace manufacturer subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) that provided civil and military space systems and services from 2006 to 2013. In 2012, Astrium had a turnover of €5.8 billion and 18,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. Astrium was a member of Institute of Space, its Applications and Technologies.

Deimos-1 is a Spanish Earth imaging satellite which is operated by Deimos Imaging who commercializes its imagery directly but also has distribution agreements with other entities like Astrium GEO and DMC International Imaging.

UK-DMC 2 is a British Earth imaging satellite which is operated by DMC International Imaging. It was constructed by Surrey Satellite Technology, based on the SSTL-100 satellite bus. It is part of Britain's contribution to the Disaster Monitoring Constellation, which is coordinated by DMC International Imaging. It is the successor to the UK-DMC satellite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AlSAT-1</span> Algerian satellite that is part of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation

ALSAT-1 is the first Algerian satellite and it is part of a group of satellites collectively known as the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). The satellite was built by a group of engineers from Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) and Algerian Centre National des Techniques Spatiales (CNTS). It was the first DMC satellite to be launched of the five to seven that are planned. The DMC was the first satellite constellation designed for that objective. The launch took place on 28 November 2002 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia on a Kosmos-3M launcher in -20 degree Celsius weather. It completed its mission after seven years and nine months in August 2010. The satellite was designed to operate for five years.

UK-DMC or UK-DMC 1, also known as BNSCSAT-1, was a British satellite that formed part of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). It was built by Surrey Satellite Technology, who operated it via DMC International Imaging on behalf of the British National Space Centre and later the UK Space Agency. It was launched alongside other DMC satellites on 27 September 2003, and retired from service in November 2011.

UoSAT-3, also known as UO-14 and OSCAR-14, is a British satellite in Low Earth Orbit. It was built by a spin-off company of the University of Surrey, Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) and launched in January 1990 from French Guiana. The satellite functioned as one of a series of OSCAR satellite in orbit around the Earth, as well as observing Earth and performing scientific experiments.

UoSAT-4, also known as UO-15 and OSCAR-15, is a British satellite in Low Earth Orbit. It was built by a spin-off company of the University of Surrey, Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) and launched in January 1990 from French Guiana.

BILSAT-1 was an earth observation satellite designed and developed by TÜBİTAK Space Technologies Research Institute and produced in Turkey as part of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) project in the context of a show-how program led by DMC International Imaging of Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Sweeting</span> British academic, entrepreneur

Sir Martin Nicholas Sweeting is the founder and executive chairman of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). SSTL is a corporate spin-off from the University of Surrey, where Sweeting is a Distinguished Professor who founded and chairs the Surrey Space Centre.

UK-DMC 3 is a constellation of three British Earth imaging satellites which are operated by DMC International Imaging. They were constructed by Surrey Satellite Technology and launched by ISRO on 10 July 2015.

PSLV-C28 was the 29th consecutive successful mission of the PSLV program. The PSLV-C28 carried and successfully deployed 5 satellites in the Sun-synchronous orbit. With a launch mass of 320,000 kilograms (710,000 lb) and payload mass of payload mass 1,440 kilograms (3,170 lb), the C28 was the heaviest commercial mission undertaken by the Indian Space Research Organisation and Antrix Corporation. The PSLV-C28 carried three identical optical earth observation satellites, an optical earth observation technology demonstrator microsatellite (CBNT-1), and an experimental nanosatellite (De-orbitSail). All the satellites were built by Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL). Although built by SSTL, the "De-orbitSail" belonged to the Surrey Space Centre.

The National Space Program (PSN) horizons 2020 planned to put in place space infrastructures, space systems and increase the specialized human resources in space technologies. Among the space systems planned in the PSN are Algeria's satellites, of which a significant number should be partly or totally integrated in the Algerian center for satellite development "CDS". CDS offers the technological environment for national competence to develop the future Algerian satellite systems. Algeria's objectives is to make of space tools a powerful instrument in national prosperity in the fields of earth observation, meteorology and communications.

PSLV-C40 was the 42nd mission of the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) program in the XL configuration. PSLV-C40 successfully carried and deployed 31 satellites in sun-synchronous orbits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RemoveDEBRIS</span>

RemoveDEBRIS was a satellite research project intending to demonstrate various space debris removal technologies. The mission was led by the Surrey Space Centre from the University of Surrey with the satellite's platform manufactured by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). Partners on the project included Airbus, ArianeGroup, Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology, Inria, Innovative Solutions In Space, Surrey Space Centre, and Stellenbosch University.

The Commercial Lunar Mission Support Services (CLMSS), also called Lunar Mission Support Services (LMSS) is a collaboration between Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop lunar telecommunications and navigation infrastructure to support lunar scientific and economic development.

References

  1. ↑ "Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL)". UK Research and Innovation. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  2. ↑ de Selding, Peter (15 February 2007). "SSTL Revenues and Profit Down Sharply". Space News . Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  3. ↑ Moore, Malcolm and Roger Highfield. "How to build space satellites out of iPods." The Daily Telegraph, 29 December 2005.
  4. 1 2 "Surrey Satellite Technology US opens for business." Archived 28 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine , SSTL press release, 5 August 2008.
  5. 1 2 Henry, Caleb (30 June 2017). "SSTL closing US factory, centralizing manufacturing back in UK". Space News. SSTL formed its U.S. subsidiary, Surrey Satellite Technology-US, in 2008, and opened a factory in the Denver suburb of Englewood, Colorado, to specifically focus on the vibrant U.S. small satellite market. At one time, the company had ambitions of growing that office to upwards of 200 people, but growing competition in small satellite manufacturing scuttled those plans.
  6. ↑ "SSTL wins Times Higher award." Surrey University, 16 November 2006.
  7. ↑ "SSTL earn Sunday Times Award." Archived 27 April 2009 at archive.today engineeringbritain.com, 17 March 2009.
  8. ↑ Amos, Jonathan (5 February 2020). "Green light for UK commercial telecoms Moon mission". BBC News. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  9. ↑ "Lunar Mission Services from SSTL". Surrey Satellite Technology. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "About Us". Surrey Satellite Technology. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  11. ↑ Experience with delay-tolerant networking from orbit, W. Ivancic et al.,International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking, vol 28, issues 5-6, pp. 335-351, September–December 2010.
  12. ↑ UK-DMC satellite first to transfer sensor data from space using 'bundle' protocol Archived 2012-04-26 at the Wayback Machine , press release, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, 11 September 2008.
  13. ↑ Hogie, Keith; Criscuolo, Ed; Parise, Ron (2005). "Using standard Internet Protocols and applications in space". Computer Networks. 47 (5): 603–650. doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2004.08.005.
  14. ↑ K. Hogie, et al., Putting more Internet nodes in space Archived 2008-11-16 at the Wayback Machine , CSC World, Computer Sciences Corporation, pp. 21-23, April/June 2006.
  15. ↑ de Selding, Peter B (29 June 2004). "Space X Takes 10 Percent Stake in Surrey Satellite Technology". Space News.
  16. ↑ "EADS Astrium signs an agreement to acquire Surrey Satellite Technology Limited from the University of Surrey." Archived 2008-04-16 at the Wayback Machine University of Surrey, 7 April 2008.
  17. ↑ Coppinger, Rob (30 November 2007). "Galileo navigation satellite provider to be dismantled". Flight International.
  18. ↑ Coppinger, Rob (25 September 2008). "EC attempts Galileo political bypass with preferred bidders". Flight International.
  19. ↑ Amos, Jonathan (13 May 2016). "SSTL ships 'last' navigation payload for Galileo". BBC News.
  20. ↑ "SSTL celebrates Galileo navigation payload order". Surrey Satellite Technology. 12 December 2017.
  21. ↑ Thisdell, Dan (28 June 2017). "ANALYSIS: Surrey Satellites dodges Brexit bullet". Flight International.
  22. ↑ Thisdell, Dan (7 March 2011). "Surrey Satellite takes the small route to the high ground". Flight International.
  23. ↑ Thisdell, Dan (1 October 2013). "Surrey Satellite pushes smaller-lighter-cheaper principle down to 50 kg". Flight International.
  24. ↑ de Selding, Peter B (9 July 2015). "Eutelsat, ESA Taking a 'Quantum' Leap Toward Fully Software-defined Satellite". Space News.
  25. ↑ "'Universal' Eutelsat Quantum satellite to revolutionise telecoms markets". Eutelsat. 9 July 2015.
  26. ↑ "EUTELSAT QUANTUM". Surrey Satellite Technology. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  27. ↑ "Six FORMOSAT-7 satellites ship to launch site". Surrey Satellite Technology. 17 April 2019.
  28. ↑ Henry, Henry (20 July 2016). "SSTL Creating New LEO platform for Honeywell and UK Space Agency". Satellite Today.
  29. ↑ NovaSAR: UK radar satellite to track illegal marine shipping activity. Jonathan Amos, BBC News. 16 September 2018.
  30. ↑ "ISRO Launches 2 UK Earth Observation Satellites Successfully". Headlines Today. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  31. ↑ Morelle, Rebecca (28 November 2017). "RemoveDebris: Space junk mission prepares for launch". BBC News.
  32. ↑ Amos, Jonathan (2 April 2018). "Space junk demo mission launches". BBC News.
  33. ↑ Amos, Jonathan (25 June 2018). "RemoveDebris: Mission to clear a huge mess above Earth". BBC News.
  34. ↑ "Telesat Procures Two Prototype Satellites for Global Ka-band Low Earth Orbit Constellation". Telesat. 27 April 2016.
  35. ↑ "SSTL confirms launch of CARBONITE-2 and Telesat LEO satellite". Surrey Satellite Technology. 12 January 2018.
  36. ↑ Allison, George (1 March 2018). "Royal Air Force surveillance satellite launched into space". UK Defence Journal. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  37. ↑ "SSTL releases first full colour videos from CARBONITE-2". Surrey Satellite Technology. 16 April 2018.
  38. ↑ "SSTL announces the successful launch of the DMC3/TripleSat Constellation". Surrey Satellite Technology. 10 July 2015.
  39. ↑ "RapidEye constellation launched successfully". spaceref.com. 29 August 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  40. ↑ "SSTL successfully launches 2 satellites for Nigeria". Surrey Satellite Technology. 17 August 2011.
  41. ↑ "SSTL announces the successful launch of exactView-1". Surrey Satellite Technology. 22 July 2012.
  42. ↑ "SSTL's 40th satellite platform launch: Sapphire reaches orbit." SpaceDaily.com, 26 February 2013.
  43. ↑ "World's first "phonesat", STRaND-1, successfully launched into orbit". Surrey Satellite Technology. 25 February 2013. Archived from the original on 6 May 2013.
  44. ↑ "Press Release: SSTL wins key role in Galileo Programme | SSTL".
  45. ↑ "SSTL Signs €80, Contract With OHB For Second Batch | SSTL".
  46. ↑ "Lift off for 4 Galileo satellites as SSTL celebrates navigation payload order | SSTL".

Coordinates: 51°14′31″N0°37′01″W / 51.24194°N 0.61694°W / 51.24194; -0.61694

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