Thorn Sicherheits, part of TS Technology Services, helps keep the European Space Agency’s space exploration programme on track
Thorn Sicherheits GmbH (TS), the German-based Division of TS Technology Services of Solihull and part of the multinational Tyco International group, was awarded in January 2005 another major contract worth over €10 million (approximately £7 million) from the European Space Agency (ESA), through its European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany to operate and mailntain ESA’s main Operations Control Centre (OCC) located in Darmstadt and tracking stations located around the world.
The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) is the control centre of the European Space Agency – “Europe’s Link to Space”. It is responsible for the launch and early orbit phase i.e. critical and routine operations of all ESA satellites as well as for the worldwide network of ground tracking stations.
The 3 year contract comes with a possible 2 year extension and is a successful re-win of a contract held by Thorn Sicherheits for the past decade.
As part of this multi-year contract, Thorn Sicherheits is responsible for the scheduling, configuration, operation and monitoring of the worldwide ESA network of ground stations (ESTRACK) located in Australia, Africa, Europe and South America. The Ground Facilities Control Centre (GFCC) is manned 24x7, 365 days a year by Thorn Sicherheits staff. Over the past year the company’s engineers have been right at the front line of European Space exploration and research including facilitating the activities and communications with such ESA missions as Mars Express and the widely publicised Huygens landing on Saturn’s Titan moon.
Hamish Close, General Manager of Thorn Sicherheits in Germany said “we successfully demonstrated to the ESA that we could deliver a highly professional support service on a global basis and our successful track record with the ESA of previous contracts was a major factor in helping us secure this valuable long term contract”.
“Our Thorn Sicherheits division won this major contract against stiff international competition under open competitive tendering conditions,” said Kevin Scott-Cowell, MD of TS Technology Services. “It means that the company will continue to operate at the forefront of Space Exploration for at least the next 3 years” he added.
The Thorn Sicherheits maintenance team provides a highly professional service, maintaining the common equipment and systems shared among the different flight control teams throughout the OCC. As well as providing out-of-hours support at the critical Launch Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) of satellite launches, the maintenance team undertake visits to maintain and upgrade various ESTRACK stations to meet the demanding requirements of the customer and to support the various satellite missions.
Since its creation in 1967, the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) has planned missions, operated more than 50 satellites and ensured that spacecraft meet their mission objectives. The mandate of ESOC is to conduct mission operations for ESA satellites and to establish, operate and maintain the necessary ground segment infrastructure.
More information about the ESOC operations centre can be obtained at: www.esa.int/esoc
