ESA Portal - Benefits for Europe - From ham-radio to Galileo, small satellites spell success

ESA Portal - Benefits for Europe - From ham-radio to Galileo, small satellites spell success

"Small satellites spell success
4 November 2005

Next month should see the launch of the first Galileo satellite which will be paving the way for Europe's global positioning service. The GSTB-V2A spacecraft has been built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) in the UK, a company which was created in 1980. Euronews has been to visit the former university students who pioneered the use of small satellites.

'My interest in satellites started during the Apollo era in 1969,' remembers Professor Martin Sweeting, today Chief Executive Officer of SSTL. 'I was watching that just before I went to university.' The University of Surrey in Guilford, 50 km from London, was to be the springboard for a spin-off company which now employs 250 people. "

73 fer nw,
Bob N5IET

10X# 37210, FP#-1141, SMIRK#-5177
http://www.n5iet.com/
Code may be taking a back seat for now,
but the pioneering spirit that put the code
there in the first place is out front of it all.