Telespazio VEGA UK has successfully delivered key launch authorisation software, which was recently used operationally for the first time in launch VA240 when an Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from the spaceport in French Guiana carrying 4 Galileo satellites.
Jupiter II is the main control centre at the Guiana Space Centre, Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana inaugurated in 1996. It interfaces to other centres and launch facilities on the site and is used to authorise the launch of Ariane 5, Soyuz and VEGA rockets.
Telespazio VEGA UK was awarded the contract for the renewal of the launch authorisation and monitoring software for the Jupiter II Control Centre in order to advance and modernise its functionality and its future maintainability. The new system can support up to 50 operators and is driven primarily through an innovative touch screen interface, designed for extensibility and reuse for ongoing and future launchers. The deep expertise gained from this initiative also has strong applicability to the satellite launch programme underway in the UK.
Marco Folino, CEO of Telespazio VEGA UK, said: “We are excited to deliver real innovation in launch monitoring and authorisation systems, by utilising the very latest software and hardware technologies for visualisation and control, whilst maintaining all the critical safely and security features of the legacy systems.”