History
In 1978, a small group of engineers at the
European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, believed
they would be more valuable if they teamed up to provide services
to their client, the European Space Agency (ESA). They bid for and
won a contract to provide satellite operations support to ESA
missions, and VEGA was formed.
More than 30 years later, VEGA still provides
that support, which has been re-tendered every five years. In this
time, the company has evolved significantly.
- 1991 – VEGA formed its German subsidiary
company, based in Darmstadt, the home of its two largest
German-based customers, ESOC and EUMETSAT.
- 1992 – VEGA floated on the London Stock
Exchange.
- 2004 – VEGA acquired Anite Systems GmbH
(Darmstadt) – a specialist Space ground systems company.
- 2008 – VEGA was delisted as a Public Limited
Company from the London Stock Exchange, following its acquisition
by Finmeccanica SPA ("Finmeccanica").
- 2009 – VEGA’s new parent in the Finmeccanica
Group, SELEX Systems Integration Ltd continue to trade in the Space
domain under the name of VEGA.
* VEGA is named after a star in the Lyra
constellation. 'Vega' is the fifth brightest star in the sky and
the star by which the brightness of other stars is measured. 'Vega'
is about three times the size of the sun and 50 times as luminous.
Its distance from the earth is 26 light-years. 14,000 years ago,
'Vega' was regarded as the 'North Star.' The star Polaris is now
that star. 'Vega' will return to its position as 'North Star'
12,000 years from now.