Matra Marconi Space (MMS) was a

Franco Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when ref ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

aerospace company An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

History

Matra Marconi Space was established in 1990 as a joint venture between the space and telecommunication divisions of the

Lagardère Group Lagardère S.A. () is an international group with operations in over 40 countries. It is headquartered in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The group was created in 1992 as Matra, Hachette & Lagardère. Headed by Arnaud Lagardère, it is focuse ...

( Matra Espace) and the GEC group ( Marconi Space Systems). The merged company was announced in December 1989 and was owned 51% by Matra and 49% by GEC-Marconi. It would have annual sales of £300 million, with £8.7 million in assets from Marconi Space Systems and £10.7 million in assets from Matra Espace. Claude Goumy, the Managing Director of Matra Espace was the first Managing Director. The first deputy Managing Director was Richard Wignall, the former Managing Director of Marconi Space Systems. The space industry was important to France - almost half the budget of the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

(ESA) came from the French government.

Acquisitions

In 1991,

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marconi ...

was discussing with MMS how to merge their space interests, as well as

Robert Bosch GmbH Robert Bosch GmbH (; ), commonly known as Bosch and stylized as BOSCH, is a German multinational engineering and technology company headquartered in Gerlingen, Germany. The company was founded by Robert Bosch in Stuttgart in 1886. Bosch is 9 ...

and

Deutsche Aerospace ''Dasa'' ( sa, दास, Dāsa) is a Sanskrit word found in ancient Indian texts such as the ''Rigveda'' and ''Arthasastra''. It usually means "enemy" or "servant" but ''dasa'', or ''das'', also means a "servant of God", "devotee," " votary" or " ...

. On 19 July 1994, it acquired

British Aerospace Space Systems British Aerospace Space Systems Ltd was a subsidiary of British Aerospace. In 1994, it was sold to Matra Marconi Space, which also acquired Ferranti Satcomms at the same time. British Aerospace regained an interest in the company when it merged ...

(a subsidiary of

BAe Dynamics British Aerospace Dynamics Limited (BADL or BAe Dynamics) was a division of British Aerospace. History British Aerospace was created in April 1977 by the merger of the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dy ...

with 900 workers) for £56 million. On 11 August 1994, it bought Ferranti Satcomms (from

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

), which was based in

Poynton Poynton is a town in Cheshire, England, on the easternmost fringe of the Cheshire Plain, south-east of Manchester, north of Macclesfield and south of Stockport. Poynton has formed part of the Cheshire East unitary authority since the ab ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

. Ferranti Satcomms brought satellite ground station, component and subsystem technologies to the group. In July 1995, GEC bought 45% of shares in the National Remote Sensing Centre for the company. Also in July 1995, the company was looking to link up with

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale (), sometimes styled Aerospatiale, was a French state-owned aerospace manufacturer that built both civilian and military aircraft, rockets and satellites. It was originally known as Société nationale industrielle aérospatiale ( ...

of Toulouse and DASA of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to form a Europe-wide space company. The company would (five years later) link up with DASA. By 1996, the company was turning over more than £1 billion. In the late 1990s, it developed a partnership with the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

's Sheffield Centre for Earth Observation Science (SCEOS), which researched

interferometry Interferometry is a technique which uses the ''interference'' of superimposed waves to extract information. Interferometry typically uses electromagnetic waves and is an important investigative technique in the fields of astronomy, fiber opt ...

. In November 1997, it announced that it would close the Filton site (former

) in August 1999, with the planned transfer of 300 of 400 personnel and staff from Bristol to Stevenage. The Filton site specialised in scientific satellites and their computer software; projects included

Ulysses Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature. Ulysses may also refer to: People * Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name Places in the United States * Ulysses, Kansas * Ulysse ...

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

Solar Arrays,

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/Proto-Renaissance period. Giot ...

Envisat Envisat ("Environmental Satellite") is a large inactive Earth-observing satellite which is still in orbit and now considered space debris. Operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), it was the world's largest civilian Earth observation satell ...

/ Polar Platform,

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft built by a European industrial consortium led by Matra Marconi Space (now Airbus Defence and Space) that was launched on a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS l ...

(SoHO) and the

Cluster may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Asteroid cluster, a small asteroid family * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study t ...

spacecraft destroyed in the first flight of

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads int ...

. Over 380 staff left the Company and as a result, MMS lost the ESA prime contract for the

Rosetta Rosetta or Rashid (; ar, رشيد ' ; french: Rosette ; cop, ϯⲣⲁϣⲓⲧ ''ti-Rashit'', Ancient Greek: Βολβιτίνη ''Bolbitinē'') is a port city of the Nile Delta, east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. The Ro ...

spacecraft. British Aerospace regained an interest in the company when it merged with GEC's

Marconi Electronic Systems Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), or GEC-Marconi as it was until 1998, was the defence arm of General Electric Company (GEC). It was demerged from GEC and bought by British Aerospace (BAe) on 30 November 1999 to form BAE Systems. GEC then renam ...

to form

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

in November 1999.

Astrium

In late 1998, it was discussing a possible merger with

DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG ''Dasa'' ( sa, दास, Dāsa) is a Sanskrit word found in ancient Indian texts such as the ''Rigveda'' and '' Arthasastra''. It usually means "enemy" or "servant" but ''dasa'', or ''das'', also means a "servant of God", "devotee," " votary" or ...

(DASA). In 2000, it was merged with the space division of DASA to form

Astrium Astrium was an aerospace manufacturer subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) that provided civil and military space systems and services from 2006 to 2013. In 2012, Astrium had a turnover of €5.8 billion and 1 ...

Management

Jean-Bernard Lévy Jean-Bernard Lévy (born 18 March 1955) is a French businessman, and the CEO and chairman of EDF. Early life Born on 18 March 1955, the son of a doctor, Lévy attended the Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly-sur-Seine. His parents sent him to England for ...

(1993-1994) * Roger Wood (1994-1996)

Products

Skylark (rocket) Skylark was a family of British sounding rockets. It was operational between 1957 and 2005. Development of the Skylark begun during the early 1950s at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), which approached the Royal Society with an offer ...

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to ...

designed earlier in the 1960s, last launched on 2 May 2005 (its 441st flight - Maser 10) from the

Esrange Esrange Space Center (short form Esrange) is a rocket range and research centre located about 40 kilometers east of the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. It is a base for scientific research with high-altitude balloons, investigation of the au ...

site of the

Swedish Space Corporation The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) provides space subsystems, space and satellite operations, rocket and balloon systems including experiment equipment, launch services, aerospace engineering services as well as airborne maritime surveillance s ...

Skylark launch
/ref> * Radar for the

European Remote-Sensing Satellite European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS) was the European Space Agency's first Earth-observing satellite programme using a polar orbit. It consisted of 2 satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2. ERS-1 ERS-1 launched 17 July 1991 from Guiana Space Centre ...

(ERS-1) * Altitude and orbit-control system for

XMM-Newton ''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second cornerst ...

, which was launched on 10 December 1999 * Advanced

synthetic aperture radar Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) is a form of radar that is used to create two-dimensional images or three-dimensional reconstructions of objects, such as landscapes. SAR uses the motion of the radar antenna over a target region to provide fine ...

(ASAR) on the

* Propulsion systems (built at Filton) for four

satellites, which were destroyed on 4 June 1996 on the Ariane 5G, Flight 501 * Technologies for Artemis satellite

Satellites

* Ariel 6 *

AfriStar AfriStar (sometimes known as AfriStar 1) is a satellite formerly owned and operated by the company 1worldspace (formerly known as WorldStar) and now owned and operated by Yazmi USA. The satellite was built by EADS Astrium (formerly known as M ...

, constructed with

Alcatel Space Thales Alenia Space () is a Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer. A joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%), the company is the largest satellite manufacture ...

AsiaStar AsiaStar is an American communications satellite which was operated by 1worldspace. It was constructed by Matra Marconi Space with Alcatel Space based on the Eurostar E2000+ bus design. Launch occurred on 21 March 2000, at 23:29:00 UTC. Th ...

, constructed with

* Hélios (Europe's first) spy satellite *

Hipparcos ''Hipparcos'' was a scientific satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1989 and operated until 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of the positions of celestial obj ...

, constructed with Alenia Spazio * Hot Bird 2, the largest satellite made in Europe at the time and launched in November 1996, and other later Hot Bird satellites for

Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Eutelsat's satellit ...

* Humidity Sounder for Brazil - launched in May 2002 * Early Inmarsat satellites *

Nilesat 101 Nilesat 101 is an Egyptian owned geosynchronous communications satellite that was decommissioned in February 2013. Launch Nilesat 101 was launched by an Ariane 4 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana on 28 April 1998 at 22:53:00 UTC by Arianespac ...

- launched in April 1998, for

ERTU The Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU; ar, إتحاد الإذاعة والتلفزيون المصري ''Itteh'ad Al-Edhaa'a wa at-Televezyon al-Mis'ri'') is the public broadcaster of Egypt, operated by the Egyptian government. It is a me ...

Nilesat 102 Nilesat 102 is an Egyptian owned geosynchronous communications satellite that was launched by an Ariane 44LP rocket from Kourou, French Guiana on August 17, 2000, at 23:16 UTC by the European Space Agency. It was manufactured by the European com ...

- launched in August 2000 * Skynet satellite *

(SoHo) - launched on 2 December 1995 * Three satellites for

1worldspace 1worldspace, known for most of its existence simply as WorldSpace, is a defunct satellite radio network that in its heyday provided service to over 170,000 subscribers in eastern, southern and northern Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia wi ...

, launched in 1999

References

{{Authority control Manufacturing companies based in Toulouse Defence companies of France Defence companies of the United Kingdom Defunct technology companies of the United Kingdom Defunct technology companies of France Defunct manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Defunct manufacturing companies of France Electronics companies of France Electronics companies of the United Kingdom France–United Kingdom relations General Electric Company Guglielmo Marconi Matra Space programme of the United Kingdom Spacecraft manufacturers Technology companies established in 1996 Technology companies disestablished in 2000 1996 establishments in France 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom 2000 disestablishments in the United Kingdom British companies disestablished in 2000 British companies established in 1996 French companies established in 1996 French companies disestablished in 2000