News

April 2012	Aurora Technology B.V. is pleased to announce that it has entered into Frame Contracts to provide support to the ESA (European Space Agency) ESTEC Directorates. The Frame Contracts extend over an initial period of three years with an optional extension for a further two years. The main emphasis is on the provision of experienced on-site engineering and scientific support at ESTEC, the Netherlands, ESAC in Spain and EAC in Germany in the following areas: Earth Observation Project Teams Space Science and Exploration through all mission phases Manned Space Flight Training Aurora has provided engineering and scientific support to ESA since 1995. The confirmation as Prime Contractor for the new Frame Contract confirms the expertise and quality of support in these areas. The Contract value is initially circa €3,5M per year and also expands previous support to the areas of Manned Space Flight and EAC. Aurora Technology is in consortium with LSE Space GmbH, also a member of the SSC Group. Together Aurora and LSE manage a team of over 175 highly qualified staff operating in the European Space sector.
October 2010	Aurora celebrated 15 years together with LSE Space celebrating 20 years in Munich, Germany. To celebrate both milestones and to help integrate the two companies we had a joint party near to the LSE head quarters. 45 Aurora staff and family members travelled from the Netherlands and Spain, and LSE also had personnel arriving from every site. On Saturday we all enjoyed Munich, one of Germany’s most beautiful cities, with a guided tour of the city or of the Deutsches Museum to see the latest technologies. The evening party was in a private room in the Augustiner Beerhall which provided an excellent atmosphere for all participants including special guests. Bo Johansson, SSC CFO, spoke highly of us and ended his speech by presenting both LSE and Aurora with nice Prisma models, to be self built from Lego. Alex Jeanes and Tony Lancaster thanked the staff for their excellent work over the years and then Tony tapped the large beer barrel. The children also had a great time with activities and a magician. The band provided excellent entertainment and the evening apparently finished in the early hours. Thanks again to the organising team it was a very successful weekend. This was a great weekend and provided opportunity to thank our team for their excellent work. It generated a good opportunity for our teams in Spain and the Netherlands to meet each other, as well as the LSE teams too.
June 2010	Aurora expands our support to Cosmic Vision 15-25 and the Mars Robotics Exploration Preparation Programme
January 2010	Alex Jeanes is pleased to announce the change of ownership of Aurora Technology B.V. implemented on 5 January 2010 when previous owners, Aurora Holding B.V. and Kevin Galloway sold all their shares to LSE Lancaster Space Engineering and Operations AG (LSE). The German company LSE has similar corporate philosophies as Aurora and both companies have worked effectively together for two years to provide highly skilled engineers to the Earth Observation Directorate at ESTEC. Amongst other things LSE will benefit from Aurora’s expertise supporting ESA at ESTEC in The Netherlands and at ESAC in Spain. For Aurora the change of ownership presents new opportunities for future growth since it now becomes a member of the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) group (100% owners of LSE), providing natural partners for winning future business. The management of Aurora remains with Alex Jeanes as Managing Director supported by Diane Barton. Additionally we welcome Tony Lancaster, one of LSE’s two Managing Directors as the second Managing Director of Aurora Technology B.V.. The responsibilities and interfaces to the clients as well as within Aurora remain unchanged. Alex Jeanes, Kevin Galloway and Diane Barton are looking forward to continuing the excellent working relationship established with Tony Lancaster. Tony has a very similar business attitude as well as a great network of contacts in the Space industry. This transaction builds upon the similar previous experience when Tony Lancaster together with Frank Niehaus, LSE’s other Managing Director sold LSE to SSC in 2004. Having been allowed to continue their proven management approach within a larger corporate entity they demonstrated significant growth and profit. We are 100% confident that we can continue to manage Aurora even more successfully while gaining support and aid from a larger organization with clients in many different countries.
January 2010	The Harbour Lights 5-a-side football team, sponsored by Aurora, finished second place in the ESTEC indoor league.
October 2009	Aurora relocated from Sassenheim to a larger office within the Crown Business Centre in Lisse.
December 2007	ESA have awarded Aurora Technology B.V. together with subcontractor LSE Space A.G. a three year frame Contract for the provision of engineering manpower support to the Directorate of Earth Observation at ESTEC. Both Alex Jeanes (Aurora) and Tony Lancaster (LSE) are very pleased with this result which allows both companies to extend their businesses into the exciting and dynamic area of Earth Observation at ESTEC.
August 2007	Aurora is growing nicely and in particular we have recently achieved a large increase to our team especially at ESAC in Spain.
April 2006	Aurora manager Alex Jeanes completes his technical support and commences full time management of Aurora to concentrate on growing the business, especially at ESAC in Spain.
February 2006	Aurora expand the support to the development of cryogenic DROID detectors for a future X-ray astronomy mission.
July 2005	Aurora provides additional support to the ESA Science Directorate Advanced Payload Technology section
June 2005	ESOC award Aurora with Contract to upgrade the Direct Interplanetary Trajectory Analysis (DITAN) Software with subcontractors Politecnico di Milano
April 2005	ESTEC award Aurora contract to develop Level 1b data processing system for Venus Express
April 2005	Aurora celebrated 10 very successful years in April 2005. The employees are extremely important and their partners appreciated too. We decided to treat everyone to something more special than the traditional dinner in a top restaurant. As the majority of the team have young families, we ventured on a three day trip to Disneyland Paris.
January 2005	Huygens space probe successfully lands on Titan and Aurora supports the generation of sound files based upon previous high altitude balloon campaign in Brazil.
July 2004	Aurora awarded project to support the calibration of the radar altimeter for the Huygens space probe.
April 2004	Aurora awarded contract by ESTEC to support the Darwin mission and in particular to develop simulator tools to help determine the best scientific approaches.
November 2003	ESA Award one year Contract to support definition of SMART-3 payload
January 2003	ESA Award 3 year Contract to perform support for Technology Reference Missions
November 2002	ESA Award Contract to support GENIE
October 2002	INTEGRAL spacecraft launched and mission planning commences using the Aurora developed mission planning software.
March 2002	ESA Award new Contract to perform Data Aide Services
January 2002	Our team developing the Science Mission Planning System for the INTEGRAL mission is expanded.
January 2002	We commence support to the COROT and STEREO projects at ESTEC.
January 2002	We start a new Contract to help develop the Science Archive for the XMM-Newton mission.
November 2001	ESA press release issued on Astronomy helps advance medical diagnosis techniques which features Aurora team member Dr. Alan Owens.
November 2001	Aurora support ESOC in the observation of the Leonids meteor shower and provide real time data on the meteor flux.
November 2001	Aurora expand with our first project with the ESA Solar Division. We support the Mars Express Project Scientist monitor the progress of the Beagle 2 Lander.
October 2001	The Aurora team plus partners enjoyed a gastronomic feast at the Oude Dijkhuis in Lissebroek.
January 2000	The Aurora enterprise was transferred to Aurora Technology B.V.