SSTL has been attending the Small Satellite Conference for the entire 40 years it has been running… a period that rather neatly spans much of the history of the small satellite industry itself.
We were delighted to be back in Utah again this year, with our stand providing a base for a busy week of conversations with customers, partners, friends and plenty of familiar faces from across the sector.
Our LEGO cleanroom model also made the journey across the Atlantic, although it arrived rather more bruised by the experience than the rest of us. Some unexpected AIT was therefore required before the exhibition opened.
Away from the stand, SSTL colleagues contributed to the conference programme with flash talks and presentations on the main stage, sharing some of the missions, technology and experience behind more than four decades of building small satellites.
Among them was Alex Da Silva, pictured below, presenting the latest - and genuinely exciting - mission results from HydroGNSS, our twin-satellite ESA Scout mission. HydroGNSS is using reflected GNSS signals to provide new observations of the Earth’s water cycle, including the ability to detect surface water beneath vegetation canopies.
SmallSat has grown considerably since SSTL first attended 40 years ago. The industry has changed beyond recognition too, with small satellites moving from something decidedly unconventional to an established part of the global space sector.
We are rather pleased to have been there from the beginning.