British small satellite manufacturer, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), has been presented with an award by the European Space Agency (ESA) acknowledging the successful GIOVE A mission and its outstanding contribution to the success of the Galileo program. The award was presented by Didier Faivre of ESA’s Galileo Directorate to Elizabeth Rooney of SSTL at an event held at the European Space Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, on 13th October 2008. SSTL was contracted into ESA’s Galileo program in 2003, when it began building the first test bed satellite as part of the Galileo In Orbit Validation Element (GIOVE) of Galileo. The satellite was rapidly built and launched before the end of 2005. Since then, the company has been actively involved with the in-orbit testing of GIOVE-A and, more recently, GIOVE B, launched in April 2008. Last month, SSTL, together with its German partner OHB-System, was downselected by ESA and the European Commission (EC) as one of two potential suppliers of satellites to the Galileo operational system to be deployed by 2013.