The ISP Group .::. News

June/July 2009
The ISP Group were present at the official opening of ESA Harwell at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London and the subsequent discussion forum, held on 22nd July. It was reassuring to see so many delegates from industry at the event and to hear the very positive efforts of the speakers, especially Lord Drayson, Jean-Jacques Dourdain and David Southwood. This may prove to be the beginning of exciting times in the annals of UK space and the ISP Group look forward to being part of that renaissance. The event also provided a welcome opportunity to meet with old friends and colleagues from the industry, as well as making new contacts, both from the UK and abroad.

On 23rd July, the ISP Group had a poster display at the Harwell Exhibition Centre during the presentation of UK space capabilities to investors and delegates, which was well attended.

We would like to express our thanks to all who took the time to meet with us and for some very useful discussion points. We look forward to furthering these areas of business in due course.

The ISP Group at Harwell

June/July 2009 Personnel Changes
At the end of June, Rob Lenaghan left the ISP Group to pursue other professional interests.

During his time with the ISP Group, Rob performed a shadow engineering role, working with Astrium GmbH, in the procurement of components from a UK supplier. .

The ISP Group wishes to thank him for all his efforts and wishes him well in his future endeavours.

In July, Gemma Smith, a highly successful chemistry student from Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School in Aylesbury joined European Astrotech as a Trainee Lab Technician, assisting in various chemical activities.

As part of the ISP Group's plans for future growth and support to the industry, an apprenticeship scheme was started in January 2009, through the UK Learning and Skills Council.

Alex Williams will benefit from a Laboratory Technician Apprenticeship, while gaining valuable experience through on-the-job training with the ISP Group, over the next 3 years. He will be trained in mechanical and electrical aspects, CAD and Electronics, in order to provide the ISP Group with a variety of useful skills to enhance our workforce's capabilities.

We wish him well in the years ahead.

May 2009
The ISP Group attended the 1st European Meeting for Space SME’s in Rome, sponsored by many agencies, including ASI and ESA.

The speakers included figures from European space agencies, politicians and representatives of industry, alongside a number of SME organisations.

The conclusions were very positive and gave a healthy impetus to current SME-oriented initiatives active around Europe. The ISP Group wishes to thank the organisers of the Meeting and all those who shared an interesting and positive dialogue.

We look forward to developing International relations in this area to forward the influence of SME’s and improve the performance of the industry as a result.

February 2009
Support given to setting up of Propulsion Awareness Course in Europe (PACE) by ESA/ESTEC at ISPG Westcott facility.

The objective of the course will be to enable professionals already involved in propulsion activities across the region to receive insight and guidance concerning general propulsion industrial status and accepted practice applied throughout the field.

The course should appeal to managers, designers, engineers, or technical staff alike, providing a background of European propulsion heritage, as well as a broad overview of applicable protocols that should be applied at various levels of the discipline, in order to ensure European industry maintains high levels of performance, reliability and quality of product.

The first courses will be run in Summer 2009. Interest should be registered through the Contact Us page on the ispropulsion.com website.

June 2008
Production consultancy support comes to an end after 5 years at Astrium GmbH Lampoldshausen.

The ISP Group would like to thank all Astrium personnel who contributed over that time to ensuring the contract reached a successful conclusion.