Kongsberg Norspace wins orders with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) for payload equipment for twelve new Galileo satellites worth up to 180 MNOK.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), working with OHB System AG in building twelve additional satellites for Europe’s Galileo navigation constellation, has selected Kongsberg Norspace® of Horten, Norway for delivery of two different payload units for these satellites.
Kongsberg Norspace will deliver the Frequency Generator and Upconverter Unit (FGUU) for the navigation payload, and the Search And Rescue Transponder (SART) for the search-and-rescue payload. The new batch is based on the already qualified units delivered and launched on board the 18 Galileo satellites in orbit (out of the 22) and 4 satellites on ground to be launched in in July 2018. The value of the new contracts is in the range of 180 MNOK, bringing the total value of Norspace’s Galileo work to more than 500 MNOK.
With 22 satellites currently in space, Galileo is Europe’s Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS), providing improved positioning and timing information with significant positive implications for many European services and users. Furthermore, the Search And Rescue service (SAR) provided through the SAR payload ensures that the time it takes to detect a person lost at sea or in the mountains is reduced from three hours to just ten minutes after a distress beacon is activated. Both the navigation services and the search-and-rescue services of Galileosat were initiated in December 2016.
“This is an important contract for Kongsberg Norspace, and we look forward to provide these units to our key customer SSTL. The fact that we are already contributing to saving lives at sea is an important value for us as a hardware provider.” says Ellen D. Tuset, President of KONGSBERG Norspace.
“SSTL is delighted to have remained the payload supplier for Batch 3 of the Galileo programme and is very much looking forward to working with Kongsberg Norspace once again. We would like to thank the teams at Kongsberg Norspace for their valuable and on-going support.” says Gary Lay, Head of Navigation, SSTL.
OHB System AG was selected as industrial prime contractor and SSTL as a core partner for payload and the space segment by ESA on behalf of the European Commission.
The Full Operational Capability phase of the Galileo programme is managed and fully funded by the European Union. The Commission and ESA have signed a delegation agreement by which ESA acts as design and procurement agent on behalf of the Commission. The views expressed in this Press Release can in no way be taken to reflect the opinion of the European Union and/or ESA. “Galileo” is a trademark subject to OHIM application number 002742237 by EU and ESA.