Matra Marconi Space

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Matra Marconi Space
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustrySpacecraft
PredecessorMarconi Space Systems, Matra Espace
Founded1990
Defunct2000
FateMerged with
Parent
GEC-Marconi, Lagardère Group

Matra Marconi Space (MMS) was a

aerospace company
.

History

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

Marconi Space Systems
). The merged 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 (ESA) came from the French government.

Acquisitions

In 1991,

Deutsche Aerospace
.

On 19 July 1994, it acquired

administration), which was based in Poynton in Cheshire
. 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 Aérospatiale of Toulouse and DASA of Germany 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's Sheffield Centre for Earth Observation Science (SCEOS), which researched interferometry.

In November 1997, it announced that it would close the Filton site (former

Cluster spacecraft destroyed in the first flight of Ariane 5. 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 to form BAE Systems
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.[1]

Management

Products

Satellites

See also

References

  1. ISSN 2032-5355
    .
  2. ^ Skylark launch
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