A Luton-based space engineering and services company, part of a Leonardo and Thales joint venture, running satellite operations, Earth observation and climate data services in the UK.
Telespazio UK is a space business that designs, builds and runs the systems behind satellites. Its own description is a consulting, technology, engineering, space operations and service development company working in defence and security, disaster management, energy, environment, climate change, maritime and space systems. Its work includes satellite navigation, satellite communications, ground-based mission control systems, Earth observation and engineering consultancy. It has worked on nearly every European Space Agency (ESA) mission, including Mars Express and the supply spacecraft that flew to the International Space Station, and has supported Rosetta.
The company traces its history to 1978, when a small group of engineers at ESA's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, started a firm to support satellite missions. It has been known as VEGA, Telespazio VEGA UK and, from 2021, Telespazio UK. It is now part of Telespazio, a joint venture of Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%). A recent project is the Climate Data Store, built for the EU's Copernicus programme, and its software has been used to authorise launches at Europe's spaceport in French Guiana since 2017. Telespazio's chief executive has said it aims to help the UK capture 10% of the global space market by 2030. The company also states that it treats sustainability as a driver of its business.
The company's UK headquarters is in Luton, Bedfordshire. Leonardo's 40-year celebration in London also named an office at Harwell, the Oxfordshire science campus that is the centre of the UK space industry. Wikipedia lists previous offices in St Albans and Welwyn Garden City and gives about 120 employees as at 2023. Sarah Macken is listed as chief executive, though Marco Folino was named in an earlier Leonardo release, so leadership has changed. Telespazio UK has also signed an agreement with Earth-i to combine radar and optical data, and is involved with the International Space Innovation Centre at Harwell.
On culture, the company describes a 'multi-disciplinary, multicultural environment' with intelligent, motivated people. It says it wants staff who pursue technical excellence, bring enthusiasm for their subject and balance teamwork with individual freedom. That is the company's own wording and we have not checked it independently. Because it is part of a large European group, UK staff work alongside colleagues in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands, and with ESA centres.
Jobs at a business like this include software and systems engineers, satellite operations engineers who fly spacecraft from the ground, Earth observation and climate scientists, project managers and consultants who work with ESA and the UK Space Agency, and the finance and people staff who run a company of this size. It is a good example of how engineering, physics, maths, computing and environmental science come together in one workplace. Its website, telespazio.co.uk, gives the current picture.
Website: telespazio.co.uk
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