Matra Marconi Space
| Company type | Joint venture |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Predecessor | Matra Espace, Marconi Space Systems |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Founder | Matra, GEC-Marconi |
| Defunct | 2000 |
| Fate | Merged into Astrium |
| Headquarters | France and United Kingdom |
Area served | Europe |
Key people | Claude Goumy (Managing Director), Richard Wignall (Deputy Managing Director), Jean-Bernard Lévy (1993–1994), Roger Wood (1994–1996) |
| Products | Satellites, satellite subsystems, radar equipment, propulsion units, sounding rockets |
Number of employees | ~1300+ (900 from British Aerospace Space Systems acquisition + ~400 at Filton) (mid-1990s) |
| Parent | Matra (51%), GEC-Marconi (49%) |
Matra Marconi Space (MMS) was an aerospace enterprise jointly operated by French and British interests.
History
Established in 1990, Matra Marconi Space emerged as a collaboration between the French industrial group Matra (via Matra Espace) and the British GEC conglomerate (through Marconi Space Systems). The partnership, publicized in December 1989, allocated 51% ownership to Matra and 49% to GEC-Marconi. Initial forecasts anticipated yearly revenues of £300 million, supported by assets valued at £8.7 million from Marconi Space Systems and £10.7 million from Matra Espace.
Claude Goumy, then Managing Director at Matra Espace, was appointed the inaugural Managing Director of MMS, with Richard Wignall, previously Managing Director at Marconi Space Systems, serving as his deputy. The French government's substantial financial involvement underscored the space sector's strategic importance, representing nearly half the budget of the European Space Agency (ESA).
Acquisitions
During 1991, MMS entered negotiations with British Aerospace regarding a potential integration of their space divisions, while simultaneously engaging in discussions with Robert Bosch GmbH and Deutsche Aerospace.
On 19 July 1994, MMS expanded by acquiring British Aerospace Space Systems, a unit of BAe Dynamics employing 900 personnel, for £56 million. Shortly thereafter, on 11 August 1994, MMS took over Ferranti Satcomms, then under administration and located in Poynton, Cheshire, thereby enhancing its capabilities in satellite ground station technologies and subsystems.
In July 1995, GEC purchased a 45% share in the National Remote Sensing Centre on behalf of MMS. That same year, MMS explored forming alliances with France’s state-owned Aérospatiale and Germany’s DASA to establish a unified European space organization—a vision realized five years later.
By 1996, MMS had surpassed £1 billion in revenue. Toward the late 1990s, it collaborated with the University of Sheffield’s Centre for Earth Observation Science (SCEOS) to further research in interferometry.
In November 1997, MMS declared plans to shut down its Filton facility (formerly part of BAe Dynamics) by August 1999, relocating most of its approximately 400 employees to Stevenage. The Filton site specialized in scientific satellite projects and software development for missions such as Ulysses, solar arrays for the Hubble Space Telescope, Giotto, Envisat, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO), and the unsuccessful Cluster mission. This closure resulted in over 380 redundancies and contributed to MMS losing the ESA prime contractor role for the Rosetta project. British Aerospace regained prominence following its merger with GEC's Marconi Electronic Systems to form BAE Systems in November 1999.
Astrium
Towards the end of 1998, merger talks commenced with DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA). In 2000, this union combined the respective space operations into a new entity named Astrium.
Management
- Jean-Bernard Lévy (1993–1994)
- Roger Wood (1994–1996)
Products
- The Skylark (rocket), a sounding rocket series initiated in the 1960s; its final launch occurred on 2 May 2005 (the 441st flight - Maser 10) from the Esrange facility managed by the Swedish Space Corporation
- Radar equipment developed for the European Remote-Sensing Satellite (ERS-1)
- Altitude control and orbit management systems for XMM-Newton, which was launched in December 1999
- The advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR) installed on the Envisat satellite
- Propulsion units manufactured at Filton for four satellites of the Cluster mission, all lost during the failed 1996 launch of Ariane 5G, Flight 501
- Technology contributions to the development of the Artemis satellite
Satellites
- Ariel 6
- AfriStar and AsiaStar, created in collaboration with Alcatel Space
- Hélios, recognized as Europe's inaugural reconnaissance satellite
- Hipparcos, constructed alongside Alenia Spazio
- Hot Bird 2, which was the largest European satellite at the time of its November 1996 launch, along with additional Hot Bird satellites for Eutelsat
- Humidity Sounder for Brazil, deployed in May 2002
- Initial satellites produced for Inmarsat
- Nilesat 101 and Nilesat 102, launched in April 1998 and August 2000, respectively, commissioned by ERTU
- Skynet series of military communication satellites
- Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHo), launched in December 1995
- A trio of satellites launched in 1999 to serve the satellite radio provider 1worldspace
See also
- Matra BAe Dynamics, a connected missile manufacturing firm
- GEC Alsthom, another Anglo-French company within GEC