Major Tim Peake Opens Thales Space Centre in Belfast
Congratulations to Thales who announced a major new investment in the future of the UK Space industry and Belfast, with the opening of an electric Space Propulsion Integration Centre manufacturing facility in the city, the first of its kind in the UK.
Opened by UK astronaut Tim Peake, the facility will manufacture state of the art electric propulsion systems for satellites.
Electric propulsion is when electrical energy collected from the sun is converted into thrust by the acceleration of inert Xenon gas ions from an electric thruster. Electric propulsion allows the satellite to carry larger payloads for longer periods, driving down the cost of operating the platform in space and requiring one fifth of the propellant to deliver the same mission compared to chemical-based engines.
The facility represents a major milestone in the development of Space design and manufacturing capability for Thales in the UK since the establishment in 2014 of Thales Alenia Space in the UK. The Thales Alenia Space JV investment has grown the business from ten employees at its foundation to 150 today, and will more than double to 350 in the next two years. The investment will also see the expansion of Space engineering centres of excellence in Bristol and Harwell.
The decision to open the manufacturing centre in Belfast was made after an evaluation of potential sites around Europe. The heritage of precision engineering for the Defence sector, traced back to the iconic Short Brothers, and the similarity of skills to those of the space industry, made the Northern Ireland site an obvious choice.
This was further reinforced by the UK Government’s commitment to fund space activities and create new initiatives to foster growth in the space industry – including the formation of the UK Space Agency, an increased contribution to the European Space Agency (ESA), the investment in the UK Space Gateway at Harwell and securing a significant share of the Neosat programme for the UK.
The Belfast site will work closely with these centres and with other Thales sites around the world. The first ten engineers from Belfast have completed their training in the new propulsion technology at the Thales Alenia Space headquarters in Cannes, France.
The facility will manufacture around four satellite electric propulsion systems per year, including those for the European Space Agency’s Neosat satellite programme. Neosat is part of the Agency’s aim of developing in orbit next-generation satellite platforms for the core satellite communications market.
Belfast will play an important step towards the qualification and production of the Thales Alenia Space’s Spacebus NEO satellite platform offering under the ESA Neosat programme.
The Belfast facility has also received support and investment from Invest Northern Ireland in the form of a training and industrial research grant.
For more than 40 years, Thales Alenia Space has designed, integrated, tested, operated and delivered innovative space systems. Its cutting-edge products and services meet the needs of commercial and government customers from around the world, spanning the communications, navigation, earth observation, space exploration, science and defence sectors.
Thales Alenia Space is also one of the main suppliers to the International Space Station, having constructed over half of the pressurised volume of the station.
Paul Everitt, CEO of ADS Group says: “Congratulations to Thales on the opening of this electric Space Propulsion Integration Centre; this is a very exciting development for the UK’s space industry and will do much to further Northern Ireland’s reputation as a hub for high-skill, high-value manufacturing.
“The UK continues to assert its position as a global leader in developing the high-tech innovations required in space exploration. By 2030, it is estimated that the UK will have a ten per cent share of the global space economy, worth £40bn annually.”