- Starion Group is providing end-to-end support to the Egyptian Space Agency to create a concurrent design facility in Cairo in partnership with Egyptian company iTech Solutions.
- The 12-month project includes design and building supervision of the new facility, installation of Starion’s CDP4-COMET software and training for Egyptian Space Agency staff.
Concurrent design experts from Starion are providing multi-layered support to the Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA) to enable it to embed a concurrent design approach into the development of future Egyptian and African space missions.
The initial phase of the 12-month project involves the design and supervision of works to build and integrate a concurrent design facility (CDF) at the EgSA in the New Administrative Capital in Cairo, Egypt. The second phase will include installation of Starion’s CDP4-COMET concurrent design software on the EgSA’s infrastructure. In the final stage, Starion’s experts will run sessions and pilot programmes to train EgSA personnel how to apply concurrent design processes to space missions.
Professor Dr Sherif Sedky, Chief Executive Officer of the EgSA, said: “We are pleased to have Starion installing our concurrent design facility at the Egyptian Space Agency, which brings the state-of-the-art concurrent design concepts. The project is running very smoothly and Starion is assigning highly qualified engineers to the project.”
Arne Matthyssen, Starion Chief Commercial and Technology Officer, said: “Starion has extensive experience of providing concurrent design solutions in the space sector. Our experts have worked in this field for decades and we are delighted to now be able to provide similar solutions to EgSA. Concurrent design offers so many benefits for the early stages of complex projects, which space missions typically are, such as reducing the time and cost of the initial design stage and enabling security by design. By having a multidisciplinary team work together from the start of the design phase, it provides a complete view of the system, facilitating management decision-making and reducing risk.
“While concurrent design is a great process for companies and organisations that have been in the space business for many years, it has also proven to be a very powerful tool to start building integrated, multidisciplinary space system engineering knowledge and competences for ambitious new space companies and organisations.”
The EgSA will use Starion’s CDP4-COMET platform as the basis for its concurrent design sessions. This is the same software used by the European Space Agency in its CDF at Noordwijk in the Netherlands. The ESA CDF has inspired the creation of more than 50 concurrent engineering sites across Europe for both space and non-space applications.
The EgSA was founded in January 2018. Its 123 hectare New Space City, South East of Cairo, also houses the African Space Agency. The EgSA has responsibility for satellite development and operations, the most recent being the remote sensing MisrSat-2 satellite launched in December 2023, and the development of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields in Egypt. Starion is working with an Egyptian partner, ITech Solutions, to deliver the project, which will be completed in November 2024.
