Satellites made in the UK and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (Amy Aviation’s UK Tour)

There are loads of places around the UK which are associated with Britain’s aerospace industry. Some of them might be near to where you live! Let’s spin the propeller and see where we’re headed today! It’s Guildford! Get ready for take-off! Guildford is in Surrey. So if you live in the South East, that’s pretty close to home. It’s home to a company called SSTL – they’re experts in satellite technology. Maybe you already know that satellites are small objects sent into earth’s orbit to do a number of different jobs. Some take measurements of the atmosphere and the earth, whilst others are for communication – like phones and entertainment. In fact, there are hundreds of jobs that these handy machines do and thousands of satellites are in orbit around our planet. Over the last 60 years scientists have learned a lot about how best to make and launch these crafts. In the early days, every single part of the satellite was built from scratch. Scientists thought that space was so different that any parts and components made for machines on earth just wouldn’t be good enough. This meant that making a satellite took a loooong time and cost a huge amount of money, because each time they’d be starting again. Imagine if your mum’s car needed a new tyre – it’s much quicker to buy a readymade one instead of trying to make a tyre yourself! Over the last 30 years, the team at SSTL realised that you could use machinery and parts that already existed. Just think how this helped speed things up! With 49 satellites launched to date and with work on 11 new missions, SSTL are experts in the very latest cool satellite technology – building new and better satellites right here, right now. Just think how cool it would be to be involved in designing and building a new satellite on its way to space! See you next time! AMY AVIATION’S BRITISH AERONAUTICS – WITH SUPPORT FROM THE ROYAL AERONAUTICAL SOCIETY. FIND OUT MORE AT FUN KIDS LIVE / AMY