1997-06-24

A new generation of standards for the aerospace industry

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) --- has signed a joint agreement with the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) ---and the European Association of Aerospace Industries (AECMA). ECSS will draft documents for project management, product assurance and safety for space programmes and engineering which will be submitted to CEN for publication as European Standards. These standards will complement those prepared by AECMA, which has been an Associated Body to CEN since 1986.

The Ariane launcher, which is a project of the European Space Agency (ESA), holds more than 50 % of the world market for commercial launches of satellites. Some 350 industrial companies participate in the overall European space programme, generating up to 8 bn ECU and over 30 000 industrial jobs and 9000 more in space agencies, research centres, universities etc.

As well as global communications, satellites are used in remote sensing (for example, in the development of agriculture, urban and regional planning etc) and navigation. Europe is now organizing itself for increasing demands. The downstream possibilities for the development of the terrestrial network that will exploit the information traffic from space, including the potential locked up in small and medium-sized enterprises is considerable.

However, the design, manufacture, and quality assurance of multi-sourced payloads to interface reliably with a launch system in a complex chain cannot be done without standards. CEN is honoured that it is now also working closely with ECSS, supported by a mandate from the European Commission, to give international status to a large part of the ECSS engineering and management documents.

Communiqué issued by:

Stewart Sanson, CEN tel + 32 2 550 08 52, fax + 32 2 550 08 19,
email sanson@cenclcbel.be

Dr Y. El Gammal, ECSS tel + 33 1 44 76 76 19, fax + 33 1 44 76 76 73,
email youssef.elgammal@cnes.fr

Mr M. Caillon, AECMA tel + 32 2 775 81 10, tel: + 32 2 775 81 11,
email aecma@skynet.be

Spokesman for CEN: Mr Hugues Plissart, Deputy Director - Standards Programme tel + 32 2 55 08 32, fax + 32 2 550 08 19, email plissart@cenclcbel.be