Download Government investment brings low cost radar satellites to market

Press Release
Guildford, 29th November 2011
Government investment brings low cost radar satellites to market
Rt. Honourable David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, today
announced an investment of £21M that will enable British small satellite pioneer
SSTL to launch an innovative and highly competitive new space-based radar remote
sensing programme in the international market.
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a powerful tool for monitoring the Earth from
space because of its ability to see through clouds and image Earth night or day.
Despite growing demand, the cost and complexity of radar satellites severely limit
their use where it is urgently needed - such as maritime surveillance (anti-piracy,
illegal fishing, drug trafficking, pollution), the oil & gas industry (pollution, ice hazards,
arctic passages) and environmental & climate monitoring (deforestation, disaster
monitoring, relief co-ordination)
Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said “Satellites enable us to
monitor and manage some of the most important issues affecting our planet. This
exciting project will provide the UK with a world-leading constellation of its own and is
a clear signal of the Government’s continued commitment to the UK space industry.
“NovaSAR will keep us at the forefront of space technology, and will drive growth and
innovation as governments and businesses across the globe develop scientific and
commercial uses for the data.”
Through an intensive development programme, the combined expertise of Surrey
Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) on advanced small satellite platforms and Astrium
UK experience on radar payloads has created a new small radar satellite (NovaSAR)
that offers powerful radar remote sensing capabilities for approximately 20% of the
cost of conventional radar missions. The Government will provide the necessary
seed funding alongside industry to develop and build the first NovaSAR
demonstration satellite, enabling the UK to showcase the highly attractive technology
to the global marketplace and initiate a constellation of NovaSAR satellites similar to
the highly successful Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) of optical small
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satellites. The first NovaSAR demonstration satellite could be launched as early as
2013.
Sir Martin Sweeting, Executive Chairman SSTL commented, “This support by the
Government is absolutely critical in bringing this world-beating technology to market.
Experience with the Disaster Monitoring Constellation has shown that modest
Government investment can catalyse an enormous multiplier for high value
manufacturers such as SSTL, Astrium and the UK space industry to grow our exports
and share in an international space market worth more than £178bn per year.”
Government will contribute £21 million to assist in the development and launch of the
first satellite, which if the project progresses as planned will leverage an additional
£154 million of inward investment to the UK. Once the NovaSAR constellation is up
and running, it is anticipated that this small Government investment could yield a
50:1 return of £1bn over the coming decade, creating or maintaining more than 300
highly skilled jobs in the UK space industry and many hundreds more jobs to provide
data analysis services downstream. This impressive return has already been
demonstrated by the earlier MOSAIC programme investments that have enabled
SSTL alone to develop from 80 employees to a highly successful space company of
450 and generated more than £500M in export orders.
In addition to securing export orders for satellites in the constellation, the partnership
expects a significant return on investment from sales of data from the constellation by
downstream applications and services anchored in the UK. The Government would
also benefit from access to NovaSAR data – significantly boosting the UK’s sovereign
Earth observation capabilities for applications such as monitoring drug trafficking,
piracy or identifying illegal logging and deforestation. This represents an example of
imaginative 'smart procurement' by government that will not only benefit HMG policy
implementation but also facilitate significant export sales for the UK in the years
ahead.
About SSTL
Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) is the world's leading small satellite
company, delivering operational space missions for a range of applications including
Earth observation, science and communications. The Company designs,
manufactures and operates high performance satellites and ground systems for a
fraction of the price normally associated with space missions, with over 400 staff
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working on turnkey satellite platforms, space-proven satellite subsystems and optical
instruments.
Since 1981 SSTL has built and launched 36 satellites – as well as providing training
and development programmes, consultancy services, and mission studies for ESA,
NASA, international governments and commercial customers, with its innovative
approach that is changing the economics of space.
The Disaster Monitoring Constellation is an international constellation of optical
Earth observation small satellites created and led by SSTL that provides
commercial imaging and assists in monitoring natural and man-made disasters.
MOSAIC was a Government programme in 2002 that catalysed the use of
microsatellites to provide high quality, rapid response optical imaging of disasterstricken areas and commercial applications which has yielded £200M of direct UK
export sales of small satellites for optical Earth observation - a remarkable return on
HMG investment for the UK economy.
Based in Guildford, UK, SSTL is owned by EADS Astrium NV.
www.sstl.co.uk
Notes to editor:
This press release can be downloaded as a Word or Pdf document at the following
url: http://www.sstl.co.uk/news-and-events
Press contacts:
Joelle Sykes, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited
Tel: +44 (0)1483 804243 Email: [email protected]
Robin Wolstenholme, bcm public relations
Tel: +44 (0)1306 882288 Email: [email protected]
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