SSTL-OHB System consortium to build a further eight Galileo FOC satellites

European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani announced in London that the consortium led by OHB System AG and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) will build a further eight satellites for the European Union’s Galileo satellite navigation programme under the supervision of the European Space Agency.

The new contract will see SSTL continuing its role as payload prime, assembling, integrating and testing the navigation payloads in the UK, whilst OHB System, as the prime contractor, builds the eight satellite platforms and executes the final integration of all the satellites in Germany. The SSTL-OHB partnership is already building fourteen satellites for the Galileo programme and will draw on its heritage and experience to produce the additional satellites to demanding schedules.

SSTL is assembling the Galileo programme payloads at its recently opened purpose-built Kepler technical facility in Guildford, UK. Under the contract, SSTL is fully responsible for the construction and test of the navigation payloads. SSTL will manufacture the electrical harnesses and the electronics to interface the navigation payload with the satellite platform. The remaining payload equipment will be externally procured by SSTL from European and other suppliers. SSTL's payload solution is based on European-sourced atomic clocks, navigation signal generators, high power travelling wave tube amplifiers and antennas and will provide all of Galileo’s services.

Galileo is Europe’s own Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), providing real-time positioning, navigation and timing services with unrivalled accuracy and integrity. It will be interoperable with the American GPS system and Russia’s GLONASS system.

Internet: www.sstl.co.uk