Space technology firm has its sights fixed on the stars
Agencies all over the world use equipment that is made north of Border
In this week’s SME Focus a man who helped develop technology used by space agencies around the world explains how he learned to combine entrepreneurship with his academic responsibilities.
Name: Steve Parkes.
Age: 59. What is your business called? STAR-Dundee Ltd. What does it produce, what services does it offer? STAR-Dundee sells electronic equipment and software used in the development and testing of spacecraft. We also sell chip designs for spacecraft electronic systems. Whom does it sell to? Space agencies and the aerospace industry across the world, including Nasa, ESA, the Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency (JAXA). What is its turnover? In seven figures. How many employees? Around 20. About half have PhDs. Two employees are based in Barcelona and the rest in our Dundee office. We are currently recruiting more engineers. When was it formed? The company spun out of the Space Technology Centre at the University of Dundee in 2002. Why did you take the plunge? My research group at the University of Dundee developed a technology called SpaceWire for the European Space Agency with inputs from international spacecraft engineers. SpaceWire is a computer network for use on spacecraft that connects on-board instruments to processing units and memory systems, and to the radio link that sends the collected information to ground. We had worked on the SpaceWire technology for several years and the standard was about to be published. People in industry and the international space agencies were asking to buy some of the equipment we had developed. The university was not set up for this and encouraged us to spin out a company, which we did.
I wanted people to use the technology we were developing. Setting up a business was part of getting the technology used. I never left academia. As well as being chief executive of STAR-Dundee, I am also Professor of Spacecraft Electronic Technology at the university carrying out research on spacecraft on-board data-handling and planetary landers, and acting as director of the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station. This collects data from environmental observation satellites orbiting the Earth and disseminates it to UK environmental scientists. It also provides imagery to Universities, Schools and the general public. What were you doing before you took the plunge? Leading the Space Technology Centre at the university and acting as director of the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station. I had been at the university about seven years, and before that I worked in industry, at British Aerospace Space Systems designing spacecraft electronics. How did you raise the start-up funding? I had been working on setting up another company and gone round the loop trying to secure investment without success. When we set up STAR-Dundee we decided not to waste time doing this and spent the time selling to customers. At the end of the day this is what really matters. So we have never taken any external investment, but grown the company according to the sales we have managed to make. In hindsight this may have slowed the growth of the company, but it encouraged us to think about what our customers need from day one. What was your biggest break? Selling our first product early in 2003 and later winning our first development contract, a Scottish Executive SMART Award, in February 2004. What do you most enjoy about running the business? I really enjoy being an engineer and making things to do a particular job. Working in the space industry is particularly exciting. Running a business is a way to do more than I could do on my own. I have a really good team of people who excel at what they do, whether it is network design, chip design, software development, PCB layout, or doing administration. Giving a demonstration of some new technology to a group of excited customers is also rather good fun, especially when the team has been working hard to get it ready on time. What do you least enjoy? The red-tape surrounding international exports of potentially sensitive technology applies to not just what we sell, but some of the components that we need to use. We understand the reasons for these rules and are happy to follow them, but sometimes it is not straightforward. What are your ambitions for the firm? STAR-Dundee’s success so far has been based on the SpaceWire computer network technology for spacecraft. It has been used or is currently being designed into more than 100 spacecraft costing well over $25 billion. We are now working on the next generation of spacecraft on-board network technology. Our current ambition is to have this new “SpaceFibre” technology adopted and used as widely as the earlier SpaceWire technology. What are your five top priorities? To continually innovate, bringing new products to our customers that fulfil their needs.
To bring the SpaceFibre technology to market and to make it an open standard for SpaceFibre published by the European Cooperation for Space Standardisation.
To provide excellent levels of support to all of our customers.
To work more closely with our international technology and distribution partners, ensuring that we are focused on the needs of our customers.
To delegate as much as possible to other capable people in the company. What could the Westminster and/or Scottish governments do that would help? The UK Space Agency has been a major step forward for the UK in the international space area along with organisations like the Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation and Space Technology (CEOI-ST) that manages some of the space related technology research and development activities in the UK. Scottish Enterprise has been very helpful in encouraging the growth of STAR-Dundee.
One thing becoming more and more apparent is there are not enough engineers being trained in the UK. This is a real tragedy for the young people of today, who miss out on one of the most rewarding careers possible.
Fibre optic internet access should be made available to international, small businesses in the middle of Scotland’s major cities. What was the most valuable lesson that you learned? That integrity matters; that change is life; when things are not going well, stick at it; that everyone makes mistakes, but to learn from them is a sign of intelligence. How do you relax? I like to be busy. To do that I like to do something with my hands, preferably outside working on my house or the garden.
University spin-out firm aims for the stars with its electronic expertise