SciSys, the hi-tech software company with offices in Bristol and Reading and headquarters in Chippenham, has racked up orders worth 12m euros for its Space Division – a leading supplier of spacecraft ground software systems and onboard software to the European Space Agency (ESA) and many other customers worldwide.
The division has been selected by Thales Alenia Space France (Toulouse) as the element prime contractor for the Galileo Network Monitoring Facility (GNMF) with a contract worth €1.6 million. Galileo is Europe's own global navigation satellite system and the new contract covers evolutional software developments and system maintenance for the initially installed system in Italy and the deployment of the GNMF at the second Galileo Control Centre (GCC) site in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
The company says: "Our success recognises the excellent work we performed in the initial Galileo Projects during the past six years." It adds that the contract is a firm foundation for the future, underlining the role of SciSys as one of the industrial key partners for the Galileo Ground Segment. This contract followed on from business worth more than €6m awarded to its wholly-owned subsidiary VCS AG in Bochum and Darmstadt, Germany.
In addition, a separate contract worth more than €2m was recently awarded to the SciSys team in Bristol for the Galileo spacecraft mission planning and operations preparation systems. These contracts are to maintain and evolve the Galileo systems for the Full Operational Constellation (FOC) phase 1 of the Galileo programme. The systems are currently being used to support operations for the first two Galileo spacecraft, which were successfully launched at the end of October.
Meanwhile the SciSys team at Chippenham has recently started work on a European Space Operations Centre project worth a total of €1.6m excluding options to develop the Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 earth observation spacecraft operations simulators.
Elsewhere the SciSys Space Division has won a number of smaller projects and contract extensions helping broaden its client base and range of applications including work for the automation of oil and gas drilling, allowing operators to focus on key actions that require human decision-making, leaving the repetitive tasks to the computer; extensions to the EarthCare Satellite programme; and work on next generation low cost short life mission satellite systems.
Commenting on the contract successes, SciSys chairman Mike Love said: “These contracts provide very good visibility for the Space Division, adding €12m to the order book, whilst additionally underpinning the improvement in Space UK margins following the restructuring.”
SciSys Space Division director Dr Horst Wulf added: "We have built a firm foundation for the future once more underlining our status as one of the key industrial partners for the European Space Programme”
