Staff at SciSys, the Chippenham-based specialist software firm, have been celebrating their role in the historic touchdown of the Rosetta space mission’s lander on the comet 67P some 500million km from Earth.
SciSys developed the software for the mission control system (MCS) for the European Space Agency (ESA) project. The software has been used by the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) to command the Rosetta spacecraft and process its telemetry. 
Since Rosetta’s launch in 2004, SciSys staff have evolved, supported and maintained the MCS, contributing more than 25 man years of effort to the project. The firm, which has its roots in the ESA, also has offices in Bristol and Germany.
Landing the mission’s Philae lander on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is moving at 55,000 km per hour around the sun, was a challenging engineering task.
Although Philae’s landing has not gone to plan – it is about 1km away from its planned resting place after bouncing, has lost battery power and is no longer talking with Earth – it is still regarded as a major feat in space exploration.
SciSys divisional director of space Horst Wulf, who has led the 15-strong SciSys team working on the mission, attended the landing event at ESOC in the German city of Darmstadt and watched the live operational activities in person.
He said: “We are all proud having been part of this historic success. For many of us Rosetta is a career-defining moment and when the time is right to look back on our professional lives it will unquestionably be one of the highlights. For the SciSys space division this is one of the best references for being involved in future space missions.”
SciSys CEO Klaus Heidrich added: “We are delighted that Philae has landed on comet 67P and congratulate the entire team on their success. SciSys prides itself on delivering mission critical systems to its clients and it is a delight to see these systems help our partners and clients to achieve something truly historical.”
As well as supplying software, IT and support services to the space industry, SciSys also works with customers in the media, government, defence and environment sectors.
