Industrial involvement in the Gaia spacecraft
Gaia was designed and built by Astrium (now Airbus Defence and Space), with a core team composed of Astrium France, Germany and UK. The industrial team included 50 companies from 15 European states, along with firms from the US. Some 80 contracts were placed with European companies and three with those in the US. The spacecraft was launched by Arianespace. Between 2,500 and 3,000 people in all are involved in the mission.
|
Austria |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
Siemens | Spacecraft electrical ground support equipment: power/pyro |
RUAG Aerospace | Payload module and focal plane assembly thermal hardware |
RUAG Aerospace | Thermal passive hardware (multi-layer insulation) |
RUAG Aerospace | Service module mechanical ground segment equipment: container and other items |
RUAG Aerospace | Focal plane assembly mechanical ground segment equipment |
Siemens | Radio frequency suitcase |
|
Belgium |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
AMOS | M2 mirrors and chemical vapour deposition |
AMOS | M4 mirrors and chemical vapour deposition |
AMOS | M5 mirrors and chemical vapour deposition |
CSL | Payload module mechanical ground segment equipment (lot 6): Thermal vacuum ground segment equipment |
CSL | Payload module thermal vacuum test facilities |
SpaceBel | Payload data handling unit software |
|
Denmark |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
Rovsing | Spacecraft independent software verification & validation |
Terma | Payload module: assembly, integration and test support (test software) |
|
Finland |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
Patria | Electrical interface unit |
SSF | Software components production |
|
France |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
EADS/Astrium SAS | Gaia industrial prime |
EADS/Astrium SAS | Spacecraft assembly, integration and test |
EADS/Astrium SAS | Spacecraft electrical ground support equipment: central check-out system software |
Boostec | Silicon carbide structures & mirror blanks |
Sagem | M1 mirror and chemical vapour deposition |
Sagem | Auto collimation flat mirror |
Latelec | Payload module harness |
Intespace | Focal plane assembly thermal vacuum facility |
EADS/Astrium SAS | Gyro |
EADS/Astrium SAS | Radial velocity spectrometer opto-mechanical assembly |
Intespace | Test Facilities |
|
Germany |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
EADS/Astrium GmbH | Mechanical Service Module |
Zeiss | M3 mirrors and chemical vapour deposition |
EADS/Astrium GmbH | Thermal active hardware |
IOF | Radial velocity spectrometer grating |
|
Ireland |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
Mc Ginley | RAMS (Reliability, availability, maintainability and safety) |
Mc Ginley | Product assurance / quality assurance support |
|
Italy |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
Alcatel Alenia Space | Micro-propulsion thruster assembly, micro-propulsion feed module, micro-propulsion electronics |
Alcatel Alenia Space (laben) | Interconnection module (focal plane assembly/CCD) |
Selex Galileo | Photometer prisms |
Selex Galileo | Radial velocity spectrometer prisms |
Selex Galileo | Solar array |
Selex Galileo | Power control (conditioning) and distribution unit |
Alcatel Alenia Space | X band transponder |
Selex Galileo | Star tracker |
SILO | Basic angle monitor density assembly |
|
Netherlands |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
SSBV | Spacecraft electrical ground support equipment: teleMetry and telecommand special check-out equipment |
Dutch Space | Spacecraft electrical ground support equipment: avionic special check-out equipment |
Dutch Space | Spacecraft electrical ground support equipment: real-time simulator |
TNO | Basic angle monitor opto-mechanical assembly |
TNO | Wavefront sensor opto-mechanical assembly |
SSBV | Payload module electrical ground support equipment |
TNO | Payload module optical ground support equipment: thermal vacuum auto collimation flat mirror mechanism |
TNO | Sun sensor |
|
Norway |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
Kongsberg | Basic angle monitor / wavefront sensor optical sources & electronics |
Prototech | Mass dummies |
|
Portugal |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
Deimos | Spacecraft database support |
Skysoft | Spacecraft electrical ground support equipment: central checkout system hardware |
Lusospace | Focal plane assembly: test optical ground support equipment and optical tools |
Ineti | Video processing unit algorithms validation support (focal plane assembly simulator) |
|
Spain |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
Sener | M2 alignment device |
Crisa | Proximity electronics module |
Alcatel Alenia Space | Clock distribution unit |
EADS Casa | Service module structure |
EADS Casa | Service module harness |
Rymsa | Low-gain antenna |
Sener | Deployable sunshield assembly |
EADS Casa | Phased-array antenna |
|
Sweden |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
Saab Ericsson Space | Command and data management unit |
|
Switzerland |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
RUAG Aerospace | Bipods & release mechanism |
RUAG Aerospace | Thermal tent structure |
Syderal | Payload data handling unit |
APCO | Payload module mechanical ground support equipment |
SpectraTime | Rubidium atomic clock module |
|
United Kingdom |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
EADS/Astrium Ltd | Electrical Service Module |
Selex Systems | Spacecraft documentation, configuration, schedule support |
e2v Technologies | CCD detectors |
EADS/Astrium Ltd | Payload module & focal plane assembly structural pieces |
EADS/Astrium Ltd | Video processing unit |
MSSL | Focal plane assembly: CCD/Proximity electronics module coupling |
EADS/Astrium Ltd | Chemical propulsion system |
ABSL | Battery |
Aerostanrew Ltd | Avionics model bench structure |
|
United States |
Contractor | Contracted Item |
Arde | Micro-propulsion tank |
Maxwell | Video processing unit digital board |
Barr | Blue Photometer / Red Photometer / Radial Velocity Spectrometer optical filters |
Last Update: 1 September 2019