Global InformationSurrey Satellite Technology information
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | Guildford, Surrey, UK (1985)[1] |
| Headquarters | Guildford, Surrey |
Key people | Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, Group Executive Chairman Phil Brownnett, MD from January 2020 |
| Products | Satellites and related services |
| Revenue | £2.6m on £92m sales for FY 2011.[2] £30m turnover, £1.5m pre-tax profit were expected for FY 2006.[3] |
Number of employees | 350 |
| Website | www.sstl.co.uk |
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a company involved in the manufacture and operation of small satellites. A spin-off company of the University of Surrey, it is presently wholly owned by Airbus Defence and Space.
The company began out of research efforts centred upon amateur radio satellites, known by the UoSAT (University of Surrey Satellite) name or by an OSCAR (Orbital Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio) designation. SSTL was founded in 1985, following successful trials on the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components on satellites, cumulating in the UoSat-1 test satellite. It funds research projects with the university's Surrey Space Centre, which does research into satellite and space topics.
In April 2008, the University of Surrey agreed to sell its majority share in the company to European multinational conglomerate EADS Astrium. In August 2008, SSTL opened a US subsidiary, which included both offices and a production site in Denver, Colorado;[4] in 2017, the company decided to discontinue manufacturing activity in the US, winding up this subsidiary.[5]
SSTL was awarded the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement in 1998, and the Queen's Awards for Enterprise in 2005. In 2006 SSTL won the Times Higher Education award for outstanding contribution to innovation and technology.[6] In 2009, SSTL ranked 89 out of the 997 companies that took part in the Sunday Times Top 100 companies to work for.[7]
In 2020, SSTL started the creation of a telecommunications spacecraft called Lunar Pathfinder for lunar missions.[8] It will be launched in 2025 and used for data transmission to Earth.[9]
- ^ "Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL)". UK Research and Innovation. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
- ^ de Selding, Peter (15 February 2007). "SSTL Revenues and Profit Down Sharply". Space News. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
- ^ Moore, Malcolm and Roger Highfield. "How to build space satellites out of iPods." The Daily Telegraph, 29 December 2005.
- ^ "Surrey Satellite Technology US opens for business." Archived 28 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine, SSTL press release, 5 August 2008.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
sn20170630was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "SSTL wins Times Higher award." Surrey University, 16 November 2006.
- ^ "SSTL earn Sunday Times Award." Archived 27 April 2009 at archive.today engineeringbritain.com, 17 March 2009.
- ^ Amos, Jonathan (5 February 2020). "Green light for UK commercial telecoms Moon mission". BBC News. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
- ^ "Lunar Mission Services from SSTL". Surrey Satellite Technology. Retrieved 16 September 2022.