Matra Marconi Space (MMS) was a Franco-

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

History

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

Matra Matra (an acronym for Mécanique Aviation Traction) was a major French industrial Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Its business activities covered a wide range of industries, notably aerospace manufacturer, aerospace, defence industry, def ...

(Matra Espace) and that of the British GEC group ( Marconi Space Systems). The new 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 The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(ESA) came from the French government.

Acquisitions

In 1991,

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

was discussing with MMS how to merge their space interests, as well as Robert Bosch GmbH and Deutsche Aerospace. On 19 July 1994, it acquired British Aerospace Space Systems (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 ...

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: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

), which was based in Poynton in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. 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 the French state giant

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale () was a major French state-owned aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and arms industry, defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as () through the merger of three established state-owned companies: Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation ...

and DASA of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

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 The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

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

interferometry Interferometry is a technique which uses the ''interference (wave propagation), interference'' of Superposition principle, superimposed waves to extract information. Interferometry typically uses electromagnetic waves and is an important inves ...

. 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,

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

Solar Arrays,

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto, was an List of Italian painters, Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the International Gothic, Gothic and Italian Ren ...

, Envisat / Polar Platform, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO) and the Cluster spacecraft destroyed in the first flight of

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a retired European heavy-lift space launch vehicle operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in French Guiana. It was used to deliver payloads into geostationar ...

. Over 380 staff left the Company and, as a result, MMS lost the ESA prime contract for the Rosetta spacecraft. British Aerospace regained an interest in the company when it merged with GEC's

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

to form

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

in November 1999.

Astrium

In late 1998, it was discussing a possible merger with DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA). In 2000, it was merged with the space division of DASA to form Astrium.

Management

* Jean-Bernard Lévy (1993-1994) * Roger Wood (1994-1996)

Products

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

Esrange , , , , , , , , , Esrange Space Center 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 a ...

site of the Swedish Space Corporation * Radar for the European Remote-Sensing Satellite (ERS-1) * Altitude and orbit-control system for XMM-Newton, 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 3D reconstruction, three-dimensional reconstructions of objects, such as landscapes. SAR uses the motion of the radar antenna over a target regi ...

(ASAR) on the Envisat * Propulsion systems (built at Filton) for four Cluster satellites, which were destroyed on 4 June 1996 on the Ariane 5G, Flight 501 * Technologies for Artemis satellite

Satellites

* Ariel 6 * AfriStar, constructed with

Alcatel Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

* AsiaStar, 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 and distances of ...

, 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 * Humidity Sounder for Brazil - launched in May 2002 * Early

Inmarsat Inmarsat is a British communications satellite, satellite telecommunications company, offering global mobile services. It provides telephone and data services to users worldwide, via portable or mobile terminals which communicate with groun ...

satellites * Nilesat 101 - launched in April 1998, for ERTU * Nilesat 102 - launched in August 2000 * Skynet satellite * Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHo) - launched on 2 December 1995 * Three satellites for 1worldspace, 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