Starion Nederland B.V. has recently won a new type of contract to provide satellite and mission engineering support services to the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes. This service contract marks a more defined approach to the provision of such services to the Agency at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), with Starion managing tasks and allocation of resources across a broad range of space missions and projects, pre- and post-launch.
Starion Nederland B.V. has won a new type of service contract to provide satellite and mission engineering support services to the Projects Department of ESA’s Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes (EOP). Leading a consortium of eight companies, Starion will support ESA’s project teams in satellite engineering, satellite system analysis and mission execution, both pre- and post-launch, for the Copernicus Sentinel and Earth Explorer missions, meteorology satellites such as Meteosat Third Generation, and national projects including the Italian IRIDE mission.
The new service contract includes four work packages and will ensure co-ordinated provision of expert support across normal and peak activity periods.
Gianluca Cerrone, Managing Director of Starion Nederland, said: “This contract will benefit from the highly efficient, agile service management approach we have evolved, which delivers fully compliant services through provision of experienced expert engineers and adoption of best practices, while continually taking into account new trends and client requirements.
“It follows on from our previous support services contracts at ESTEC, and benefits from our extensive experience in providing support to other ESA Directorates at sites including ESRIN, ESOC, ECSAT and the ESA EGNOS Project Office in France*. We look forward to a productive ongoing relationship with the EOP team and our partners in fulfilling this contract.”
The four work packages within the contract are: Satellite Engineering Support; Satellite to Ground Segment Interfaces Engineering; Satellite System Analysis; and Post-Launch Support. Most of the support services are required during Phases B/C/D/E1: from the start of implementation to the end of in-flight commissioning. However, in some cases they will continue during routine operations (Phase E2), with the post-launch support work package including support for satellite-related preventive and corrective maintenance activities, mission extensions and mission termination. All of these are essential for the success of each mission.
Other consortium members working with us on this contract include: Aedel Aerospace, Akkodis Netherlands International, ATG Europe, AURORA Technology, Deimos Space, Serco Netherlands and Telespazio Belgium.
* ESRIN is the ESA Centre for Earth Observation in Italy; ESOC is ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Germany; ECSAT is ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications in the UK; and EGNOS is the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, Europe’s regional satellite-based augmentation system.
Main image credit: ESA – Jan Van Haarlem/Gallery Imaging bv