SSTL celebrates 30 years of Space Innovation
Surrey
Satellite
Technology
Ltd
(SSTL)
is
celebrating
30
years
of
space
innovation
this
year,
marking
the
anniversary
of
the
founding
of
the
Company
in
June
1985.
Staff
celebrating
the
Company’s
30th
Anniversary
at
the
Guildford
site
Sir
Martin
Sweeting,
founder
of
the
Company
and
Executive
Chairman,
gave
a
short
speech
to
staff,
reminding
them
of
their
achievements
and
looking
forward
to
future
years
of
innovation,
with
space
hardware
beyond
Earth’s
orbit
firmly
on
SSTL’s
wish
list.
He
said
“We
have
come
a
long
way
together
since
the
early
days
of
our
first
microsatellites.
Indeed,
small
satellites
are
now
all
the
fashion
and
we
can
be
proud
to
have
stimulated
a
new
global
industry
–
demonstrating
that
British
inventiveness
is
alive
and
well.
There
have
been
of
course
many
challenges
and
as
many
highlights
throughout
the
last
three
decades
but,
above
all,
the
achievements
are
due
to
the
growth
of
an
incredible
team
at
SSTL
who
are
dedicated
to
the
exacting
task
of
designing
and
building
complex
but
reliable
satellites
for
our
customers,
seeing
them
perform
in
space,
and
stimulating
new
applications
and
businesses“
The
SSTL
story
is a
showcase
of
British
ingenuity,
ambition
and
innovation
in
space
engineering
which
has
propelled
the
Company
to
the
forefront
of
the
small
satellite
industry.
Today
the
Company
employs
500
staff
and
assembles
multiple
satellites
and
space
hardware
in a
suite
of
state-of-the-art
cleanrooms
and
laboratories,
but
the
origins
of
the
Company
were
much
more
humble:
a
home-made
structure
in
the
corner
of a
University
of
Surrey
laboratory
served
as a
“cleanroom”
where
Sir
Martin
Sweeting,
then
a
PhD
student
at
the
University,
led
a
small
team
to
design
and
manufacture
UoSAT-1,
an
experimental
small
satellite
built
using
commercial-off-the-shelf
components
and
launched
in
1981.
Cleanroom
constructed
in a
University
of
Surrey
Lab,
for
the
build
of
UoSAT-1
The
UoSAT-1
spacecraft,
weighing
just
72kg
and
the
size
of a
small
fridge,
was
lighter,
quicker
to
build,
and
much
cheaper
than
traditional
satellites
of
the
time,
which
were
generally
the
size
of a
double-decker
bus.
UoSAT-1’s
successful
mission
racked
up
two
“Firsts”:
the
first
microsatellite
with
in-orbit
re-programmable
computer
and
the
first
to
fly
a
CCD
area
array
Earth
imager.
Since
that
time,
SSTL
has
gone
on
to
achieve
many
more
“Firsts”
and
today
a
list
of
30
Firsts
is
published
on
the
Company’s
website
in
honour
of
the
30th
Year
Anniversary.
Included
on
the
list
are
the
first
recorded
and
verified
unintentional
space
debris
impact
by
two
man-made
objects
in
Earth
orbit,
the
UK’s
first
nanosatellite
in
orbit,
the
first
use
of
butane
as a
space
propellant,
the
first
satellite
to
have
a
web
address
in
orbit,
and
the
first
momentum
wheel
to
guide
a
landing
craft
to
the
surface
of a
comet.
During
the
30
year
history
of
the
Company:
- SSTL’s satellites have amassed over 520 orbit years, which is about 115 million orbits of the Earth, and have travelled over 5 trillion kilometres – or to Pluto and back 8 times!
- 6 national space agencies have been formed as a result of launching an SSTL small satellite as a first space mission.
- SSTL has averaged 2 satellite launches per year, with 43 satellites launched to date from 8 different launch sites around the world. A further 4 SSTL satellites are due to launch this year.
SSTL was formed in 1985 as a spin-out company from the University of Surrey to transfer the results of its research into small satellite engineering into a commercial enterprise. The growth of the Company accelerated and in 2006 it moved from the University to purpose-built premises on the Surrey Research Park. In 2009 the EADS group company, Astrium, bought a 99% shareholding in SSTL from the University. In 2014, EADS re-organised and SSTL is now an independent company within the Airbus Defence and Space Group.
To date the SSTL has launched 43 satellites, with a further 4 satellites due to launch this year. The Company currently has over 20 spacecraft in manufacture or awaiting launch, as well as 22 payloads for Galileo, Europe’s satellite navigation system.
One of SSTL’s current cleanrooms at the Guildford site, May 2015
Notes to editor:
Accompanying images for this press release can be downloaded at http://www.sstl.co.uk/News-and-Events
Photo 1: Staff in 30 years formation
Photo 2: UoSat-1 cleanroom
Photo 3: Current cleanroom
