Dr Evan Harris MP Visits Culham Site
22nd January 2007
As a major, wide-ranging inquiry into UK Space Policy has been launched, ABSL Space Products today welcomes Dr Evan Harris MP to its Culham, Oxfordshire site.
ABSL will seek Dr Harris’s support in promoting small businesses in the UK Space Industry and in securing their future success and competitiveness through government investment. ABSL has achieved a 20% year on year growth since the start of the millennium and demonstrates the transformation which development investment in small businesses can yield.
Dr Harris is a key member of the Science and Technology Committee which will undertake an inquiry into the UK space industry and monitor progress towards strategic objectives. The committee will address issues such as how investment on space-related activities impacts the UK’s international competitiveness in the sector; how benefits and value for money from participation in the European Space Agency and other international programmes is obtained; how commercial benefits and wealth creation from UK space-based technologies through innovation and knowledge transfer are maximised; how public benefits are delivered from related activities of different Government departments and the co-ordination of these activities; and how space-related research and the UK skills base is supported.
Director of ABSL Space Products, Rob Spurrett commented: “Enlisting the support of an influential figure like Dr Harris MP is key to ensuring that small businesses such as ABSL have a voice in the future investment and development of the UK space industry. ABSL is proof that modest government investment can give small businesses in the UK space industry the ability to grow and be competitive in the international space industry. We have surpassed all our expectations for turnover and now employ a highly skilled team of over 40 people. We believe that this kind of ongoing investment will enable ABSL and other businesses like it continue to grow and compete on the international space arena.
Dr Harris, MP for West Oxford and Abingdon where many ABSL employees reside, added:
ABSL is typical of the sort of small high-tech company upon which this country’s economic future depends. The enquiry into UK space policy that the Science and Technology Select Committee is undertaking is important and this visit will be very helpful.
ABSL is the world leader in the supply of Lithium-ion batteries for satellites and launch vehicles and continues to invest and develop its products and services for the space industry. Since 2001, twenty satellites have been successfully launched utilising ABSL hardware and over 50 satellite and launch vehicle contracts have been secured.
ABSL has also supplied batteries for ESA’s Mars Express mission which was launched in June 2003. In addition to Mars, ABSL’s batteries are powering the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Proba satellite, which passed its five-year operational milestone on 22nd October 2006, and ABSL has been selected to supply batteries for missions to Medium Earth Orbit, Geostationary Earth Orbit, the Moon, various Lagrange points, Venus and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the far reaches of the solar system.
Notes To Editors:
ABSL Space Products (formerly AEA Technology Space)
ABSL Space Products is a trading name of ABSL Power Solutions Limited, which is one of nine companies acquired by CIP Industries Incorporated LLP from AEA Technology plc in October 2005. This change offers ABSL Space Products a huge opportunity to grow and develop the business to achieve its ambitions.
ABSL Space Products is the world leader in the supply of Lithium-ion batteries for space applications with Lithium-ion battery contracts for over sixty spacecraft and launch vehicles. ABSL supplied the first rechargeable Lithium-ion battery flown in space and a total of nineteen spacecraft in orbit are now using ABSL Lithium-ion battery technology.
ABSL has built up a global customer base, winning major contracts from NASA, ESA, and major prime manufacturers in North America, Europe and the rest of the world.
ABSL has demonstrated in orbit the most reliable Lithium-ion product available for the space market by clocking up over 2500 cell years of space operation without failure.
ABSL has pioneered a battery design concept that is uniquely flexible. As well as being selected for very large space battery applications (such as the 400KWh unit for the NASA Space Shuttle), ABSL’s “small-cell” concept has become the natural choice for many satellite applications.
ABSL is working on the next generation of Lithium-ion technology to increase battery level energy density to over 150Wh/kg.
Most recent articles
- ABSL Selected to Supply Infrared Calibration System for SLSTR - 30th July 2008
- ABSL Power Solutions wins best technology award at Soldier Technology 2008 - 26th June 2008
- ABSL Selected to Supply Lithium-ion Battery for GMES Sentinel 1 - 18th June 2008
- ABSL To Conduct Astronaut Spacesuit Battery Program in Colorado - 20th May 2008
- ABSL Lithium-ion Batteries Enable European GPS Satellite Mission To Be Extended - 15th April 2008
