UK Space Facilities Airbus DS Stevenage

Airbus DS Stevenage

For over six decades the Airbus Defence and Space site of Stevenage in Hertfordshire has been the lynchpin for the development and construction of Telecommunications, Scientific, Earth Observation and Meteorology Satellites, Planetary Surface Robotics, spacecraft structures, propulsion systems, mechanisms and antennas. The Stevenage site has an Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT) workforce of over 300 highly qualified and skilled employees who operate in some of the best equipped and state-of-the art development, assembly, test and production facilities in the space industry.

The AIT facilities offer a comprehensive suite of manufacturing and test capabilities from piece part manufacture, construction of light-weight honeycomb panel composites; CFRP filament wound composites, to full structure assembly, including propulsion, harness and thermal subsystems, to the assembly integration and test, of complex satellites in clean rooms of cleanliness class ISO 8. The latest addition is the Bio-Clean Facility where the ExoMars Rover Vehicle was built for the 2020 mission to Mars. The environmental test facilities include vibration, shock, thermal vacuum, climatic, static and high-powered RF testing in vacuum to support the qualification of components, equipments, mechanisms and antennas. The extensive range of facilities provides customers with a ‘one stop’ test house capable of handling products from individual components and mechanisms (ADTMs / SADMs / Cryogenic Coolers) to spacecraft payloads and complete small satellites, nanosats and cubesats developed by third parties. Airbus DS services for hire include environmental simulation facilities with the ability to meet bespoke monitoring requirements for the articles under test

This facility is available for UK Space companies to use: for further information please send an email to the address provided below.

Contact: ian.holder@airbus.com

Airbus DS Stevenage Propulsion Activites
In the field of spacecraft propulsion, Airbus DS Stevenage provides support to spacecraft system design, platform engineering, manufacture, assembly and integration.
Airbus DS-Stevenage Thermal Design and Manufacturing Facility
Airbus has vast experience in internal and external thermal design to meet the thermal requirements of the harsh space environment.
Airbus Mars Yard
The Airbus Mars Yard was built for the ExoMars Rover project in 2013 and consists of a fully enclosed simulated Martian environment (30 x 13 m) and control room.
Airbus Stevenage Bio-Clean Facility
The Airbus Stevenage site features a Bio-Clean facility for hardware preparation for e.g. planetary lander missions.
Airbus Stevenage Climatic Testing Facility
The Airbus Stevenage Environmental Test (EVT) climatic facilities consist of five climatic chambers.
Clean Rooms
Airbus Defence and Space has a number of clean rooms in Stevenage of various sizes for unit level and system-level AIT.
High Power Radio Frequency Testing
Several types of Radio Frequency (RF) tests are available at Stevenage.
Magnetic Mobile Coil Facility
The Magnetic Mobile Coil Facility (MCF) is available to third parties.
Mass Properties and Structural Test Facility
Airbus DS Stevenage has comprehensive facilities for measurement of mass properties and structural testing.
Shock Test Facility
Airbus Stevenage has a shock test facility which may be used by third parties.
Thermal Vacuum Facilities
The Airbus DS Stevenage Environmental Test Lab has been upgraded with a brand new, state of the art Control Room.
TQCM Monitored Thermal Vacuum Bakeout
Airbus has two Vacuum facilities which are set up to ESA requirements for vacuum bakeout, to provide state of the art outgassing monitoring using a trio of Thermoelectric Quartz Crystal Microbalances (TQCMs).
Vibration Facilities
There are two Vibration Facilities available at Stevenage capable of delivering 200kN and 65kN of dynamic force, in three orthogonal axes.