Engineers from STFC’s Space Science & Technology Department at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) designed and built the electronics systems for the cameras on two of SDO’s instruments. Contracted by Lockheed Martin, STFC’s engineers developed electronics boxes which control and read out the data from SDO’s cameras.

For more information and up to date information on the launch event at RAL launch time please follow this link

For more information on the mission please follow this link to the full press release

A new executive agency will be created to take the UK's recession-busting space and satellite sector into a new space age.

Full Press Release

A new UK-designed telescope, that can map the sky much faster and deeper than any other infrared telescope, has made its first release of stunning images. VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) is the world’s largest telescope dedicated to mapping the sky in infrared light and will reveal a completely new view of the southern sky. The spectacular images of the Flame Nebula, the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy and the Fornax Galaxy Cluster show that VISTA, based at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, is working extremely well.

Full Press Release