These experts possess expertise in some amazing areas such as the development of Galileo, the Mars Express, and Europe's first mission to Mercury. Because of these talents they have been re-upped in a three-year contract to assist a range of specialist scientific and engineering expertise to the European Space Agency (ESA) across nine countries. 

Serco has successfully re-bid a competitive framework contract that started on July 1, 2017 and has a three-year base period, with the option of two, one-year extensions. Based on current workloads under the framework, if the extension options are exercised the contract will have a total estimated value to Serco of 66 Million Euros over five years. 

A pair of ESA rovers trundled around a Moon-like area of Tenerife by both day and night during a nine-day test campaign, gathering terabytes of data for follow-up analysis.

Under the contract, Serco will provide a range of highly skilled experts to the ESA covering special topics across sixteen fields including engineering, electromagnetics, optics, space science, robotics, navigation, large-scale data analysis, product assurance, business management, software development and IT. 

The experts will support the operations of eight ESA Directorates including Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration; Space Transportation; Navigation, and Earth Observation.  

Key ESA projects the experts will support include the development of Galileo, Europe’s own global navigation system, the Mars Express Mars orbiter mission, and BepiColombo, Europe’s first mission to Mercury. 

Serco has provided scientific and engineering expertise to the ESA for over four decades, primarily at ESA sites in Noordwijk, The Netherlands and Madrid, Spain. The framework contract allows for Serco to provide specialist expertise at these sites as well as sites in France, French Guiana, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom. 

Michael Alner, Managing Director, Serco Europe, said that they are proud to have been selected as the European Space Agency’s trusted partner in providing vital specialist expertise across such a wide range of locations. They have supported the ESA for many years and this award is testament to the skills and commitment their experts have demonstrated, as well as their ability to meet complex requirements across multiple countries.