Actually, it is rocket science...
29 October 2008
Poole rocket component specialist Thompson Valves Ltd is working out of this world after securing a multi-million-pound contract that sees it playing its part in launching TV satellites in space.
The specialist valve manufacturer has been guaranteed work for the next five years following its £7.5 million contract win to supply more than 1,000 valves for the second stage engine on the Ariane 5 launcher.
Every cryogenic valve has pure helium flowing through it and to ensure reliability, each one is tested to minus 196 degrees Celsius in liquid nitrogen.
Brian Ellis, consultant at Thompson Valves explained: "The valves switch the fuel supply to the engine of the Ariane 5 ESCA, a bit like a carburettor system on a car."
The Ariane 5 launch vehicle is part of the European space programme.
It puts television satellites weighing up to seven tonnes into orbit in a ring about seventeen thousand miles around the earth, above the equator.
Thompson Valves will start supplying the devices in spring 2009 at a rate of 29 valves every six weeks, until 2014.
Thompson started working on the Ariane series of launchers with a development contract in November 1979.
Part of engineering and pneumatics industrial company IMI plc, Thompson Valves Ltd employs 140 staff in Poole.