RAL Space Facilities and Services

Facilities and Services

RAL Space offers state-of-the-art facilities for the design, build, and test of space hardware and instruments.

The facilities at RAL Space have been created to meet the comprehensive and exacting needs of customers and collaborators, provide capability for the needs of the next generation of spacecraft and instruments, and to contribute to the growing community of space focused businesses, capabilities and skills located at the Harwell Campus. We are certified to ISO 9001:2015.

For more information please email: RAL Space Enquiries

Space assembly, integration and test facilities

Clean room facilities
RAL Space manage and maintain a number of small clean rooms which are available for hire by space sector organisations.
Large-scale test facilities
The National Satellite Test Facility (NSTF) is a world class set of co-located facilities for environmental testing of space payloads and satellites up to 7000 kg.
Small-scale test facilities
RAL Space operate a range of test facilities and clean room space for the development, assembly and testing of space bound hardware, from components to spacecraft and payloads..

Design, Research and Development

Autonomous Systems Facilities
The Autonomous Systems Group has expertise in organising and conducting field-testing and gathering the right information for Validation and Verification of both the test site and robots.
Concurrent Design Facility
The RAL Space Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) is designed for the quick and efficient conceptual design of complex space systems.
Electronics Facilities
The Electronics Group within the Imaging Systems Division has several facilities.
High-Resolution Spectroscopy Facility
The High-Resolution Spectroscopy Facility studies the spectrally-resolved radiative properties of matter (extinction, emission, and reflection) at high spectral resolution across a wide span of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Laser Spectroscopy Facility
The Laser Spectroscopy team carries out research and development on tuneable laser spectroscopy methods, instruments, technologies, and applications.
Optics facilities
Over the last 30 years the Optical Systems Group have designed instruments that cover the range of wavelengths from extreme UV through to very long wave THz systems.
Precision Development Facility
The Precision Development Facility - Millimetre Wave Technology - is a comprehensive and well-equipped facility providing expertise in precision machining and novel component prototyping associated with the manufacture of miniature detectors.
UK-China Joint Laboratory for Space Science and Technology
The UK-China Joint Laboratory for Space Science and Technology brings together key space sector leaders from UK and China.

Manufacturing Facilities

Advanced Materials Testing Laboratory
Test and validate space technology
Electroplating and electroforming facility
The plating facility provides high quality surface finishing solutions for various ground based and space based RAL Space projects and instruments.
Multi-Layer Insulation Facility
RAL Space operates a multi-layer insulation (MLI) facility that supplies bespoke MLI solutions to customers from across the UK, European and global space sector.

Engineering

Mechanical Engineering
The role of the Mechanical Engineering Group is to ensure that flight instruments are designed and built to survive the demanding requirements placed upon them during launch and operation in Space.
Systems Engineering
As well as producing individual electronics or optical component for larger projects, Imaging Systems also have a long heritage in the design of the entire imaging system - from initial conception and design, through to manufacture and testing.
Thermal Systems Engineering
The Thermal Engineering Group within RAL Space designs space and ground-based instruments.

Data Facilities

Data Management
RAL Space has considerable experience in the processing, analysis and archiving of scientific data.
The Centre for Environmental Data Analysis & JASMIN
The Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) run data centres for the NERC science community, and in collaboration with STFC’s Scientific Computing Department, operates the JASMIN e-infrastructure.
UK Solar System Data Centre
The UK Solar System Data Centre system provides archiving and data distribution services relating to Solar system science, Earth's ionosphere and geomagnetic environment.

Ground Segment Facilities

Ground Station Facility
RAL Space Ground Station provides services to the scientific community and undertakes work for commercial clients. We also welcome academia/industry collaborations.
The Chilbolton Observatory
Chilbolton Observatory is home to a wide range of science facilities covering research in atmospheric science, radiocommunications, astronomy and space science and technology.