Matra Marconi Space
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Spacecraft |
| Fate | Merged with DASA in 2000 |
| Predecessor | Marconi Space Systems, Matra Espace |
| Successor | Astrium |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Defunct | 2000 |
| Headquarters | Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France |
|
Area served
|
UK, France |
| Products | Satellites |
|
Number of employees
|
1,100 (UK) |
| Parent | GEC-Marconi, Lagardère Group |
Matra Marconi Space (MMS) was a Franco-British aerospace company.
Matra Marconi Space was established in 1990 as a joint venture between the space and telecommunication divisions of the Lagardère Group (Matra Espace) and the GEC group (Marconi Space Systems). The merged company was announced in December 1989 and was owned 51% by Matra and 49% by GEC-Marconi. It would have annual sales of £300 million, with £8.7 million in assets from Marconi Space Systems and £10.7 million in assets from Matra Espace.
Claude Goumy, the Managing Director of Matra Espace was the first Managing Director. The first deputy Managing Director was Richard Wignall, the former Managing Director of Marconi Space Systems. The space industry was important to France - almost half the budget of the European Space Agency (ESA) came from the French government.
In 1991, British Aerospace was discussing with MMS how to merge their space interests, as well as Robert Bosch GmbH and Deutsche Aerospace.
On 19 July 1994 it acquired British Aerospace Space Systems (a subsidiary of BAe Dynamics with 900 workers) for £56 million.
On 11 August 1994 it bought Ferranti Satcomms (from administration), which was based in Poynton in Cheshire. Ferranti Satcomms brought satellite ground station, component and subsystem technologies to the group.
In July 1995, GEC bought 45% of shares in the National Remote Sensing Centre for the company. Also in July 1995, the company was looking to link up with Aérospatiale of Toulouse and DASA of Germany to form a Europe-wide space company. The company would (five years later) link up with DASA.
...
Wikipedia