SENER 50 years in Space

Cluster I and II, the first series of micro-satellites with SENER equipment

Durante sus más de quince años en operación, la misión Clúster ha permitido estudiar, con un delicado nivel de detalle, la invisible interacción entre el Sol y la Tierra. Cluster supuso para SENER una diferencia dentro de su participación habitual en misiones espaciales, que normalmente está concentrada en programas científicos y de observación de la tierra, en los que los satélites son únicos o forman parte de series de muy pocas unidades. 

José Ángel Andión and the champagne that never was

SENER Aerospace project manager, José Ángel Andión, began working on Cluster in 1991, where he remained until 1995 when the equipment was delivered to the client.

Carlos Pascual's trip to Baikonur in the Cluster mission

For SENER, the Cluster project was a very important one because of the number of equipment elements involved. SENER was responsible for four unfolding masts mounted on each of the mission’s four satellites. Carlos Pascual explains the turn that changed the course of the mission.

Interview with Demetrio Zorita and Carlos Santos about SEOSat / Ingenio

Do you want to know the current status of the SEOSat / Ingenio project and the responsibility of SENER in this satellite? Carlos Santos and Demetrio Zorita, project managers at SENER  tell us in this interview the ins and outs of the program.

Curiosity, SENER's first device on Mars

In 2012, SENER put for the first time an operating device on a heavenly body other than Earth, the pointing mechanism for the high-gain antenna of the rover Curiosity. SENER's team had to face many challenges and reliability requirements at this mission. The rover was designed to function for at least two years, but it’s been working five years now and it is expected to complete its mission in 2018.

José Ángel Andión's footprint on Mars

The Mars Science Lab (MSL) mission was very ambitious, it was responsible for sending the Curiosity rover to Mars, José Ángel Andión lived intensely the entire mission.

José Ramón Villa, member of the MetOp family

The MetOp project is a European initiative to monitor the climate and improve weather forecasts implemented by the European Space Agency and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).

Interview with Juan Ruiz de Gopegui, head of the Structures and Mechanisms Section

Juan Ruiz de Gopegui talks about his section, the projects done, the aerospace industry and the future of the Space.

Hubble and the birth of NASA's Great Observatories

The Hubble space telescope is one of the greatest achievements of the international scientific community. During its 26 years in orbit, and after overcoming a fault in the design of its primary mirror, it has observed approximately a million objects.

Hubble's eye doctor

For the first few months, the Hubble telescope was basically 'nearsighted' until the scientists at NASA finally fixed the problem. Nevertheless, during this time, it was a European camera co-developed by SENER that provided temporary improvement to the images. Álvaro Azcárraga tells us the anecdote.

“SENER's intelligence and working capacity are qualities that are hard to find in other companies"

Antonio Ayuso, Head of Aerospace Projects, has trouble recalling the most special moments during his time at the company but that doesn't stop him from sharing them with us.

Albert Tomàs, the courage of participating in MARES

Talking to Albert Tomàs, it would seem that a project such as MARES was a simple task but, a few minutes into the interview, we quickly realize that it has been more than 11 years of hard work.

MARES: a gymnasium for astronauts

Without gravity, the blood and other fluids in the body begin to flow towards the head, potentially causing sensations of dullness and nausea or headaches.  Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System (MARES), has been helping astronauts look after their health while aboard the International Space Station.

José Ignacio Bueno remembers the Envisat mission

Envisat was not only a great mission because of the success that the project produced, but also because of the satellite's dimensions, measuring 25 meters long and weighing 8.2 tons. This mission was the first major project for José Ignacio Bueno, Aerospace project manager at SENER. 

ENVISAT, an Earth-observing polar-orbiting satellite

Envisat was conceived as an Earth-observing polar-orbiting satellite capable of measuring the atmosphere, oceans, land, and ice, for a minimum of five years.

Ulysses: from delays to success

The tragic explosion of the space shuttle Challenger which claimed the lives of the seven crew members, and another aspects of the project resulted in ongoing delays for the Ulysses. Carlos Pascual, who is Director of Projects at SENER, was part of this mission almost from the beginning, and he remembers the key moments leading up to its launch in 1990.

ULYSSES, an extraordinary mission

In 1990, the ESA and the NASA launched Ulysses, a groundbreaking mission designed to explore what was hitherto a totally unknown territory – the poles of the Sun. 

Ulysses proved to be an extraordinary mission that has furthered our knowledge of the Sun.

Spacelab, Carlos Pascual's baptism in Space

Spacelab was the company's first major space project, with the delivery of 165 mechanical ground support equipments (MGSE). Spacelab was a microgravity laboratory transported on board by a NASA space shuttle. This was Carlos Pascual's first project in the aerospace sector. He offers the following testimony:

The Spacelab legacy

On 28 November 1983, the first space laboratory built in Europe, ‘Spacelab-1’ was launched inside the space shuttle with the first ESA astronaut, Ulf Merbold, on board. This journey signalled the inauguration of the European Space Agency in manned space flights and with it, SENER's first large contract in flight equipment.

Gaia's sunshield was the instrument with the widest diameter ever deployed by the ESA

Eduardo Urgoiti,  aerospace projects manager at SENER, talks about the work the company has carried out for the Gaia project - a satellite used to catalogue and explore close to one billion stars - with the intensity it has required to be involved in these major challenges for the company.

The Gaia star catalog

The Gaia satellite took off on board a Soyuz launcher from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on a cold December 19 in 2013. A long flight with a far from simple goal: to observe and catalog a billion stars, roughly 1% of all the stars that populate the Milky Way.

The story behind an image of the Rosetta project, told by José Angel Andión

José Angel Andión, project manager of the Structures and Mechanisms Section, tells the peculiar story of this snapshot taken by the Philae spacecraft during its descent to the comet. “You don’t usually get proof of the hardware you’ve worked on through a photograph”, says.

Luis Fernando Sánchez recalls its participarion in Rosetta

We talk with Luis Fernando Sánchez , who is head of SENER in Madrid’s Integration and Testing Center and has been one of the engineers involved in the Rosetta project since it first began.

Rosetta: an historic mission

Rosetta flew over the Earth on three occasions, flew by Mars, and having a close encounter with two asteroids, the Rosetta probe successfully exited Jupiter’s orbit. It was just then when the probe was induced into a state of lethargy in deep space. After almost three years later, Rosetta awoke with the mission of finishing the final stage of its epic voyage.

MiniSat, the first Spanish satellite, designed with SENER technology

On 21 April 1997, MiniSat was launched into space from the island of Gran Canaria. This was the first in a series of small satellites launched by INTA (the National institute for Aerospace Technology). It was a pioneering project for the Spanish space industry, as it was the first satellite developed completely in Spain and by Spanish companies.

The era of dreams

The Soviets launched the first space satellite, Sputnik, into orbit in 1957. Then, in 1961, Yuri Gagarin completed the first manned space flight, and in 1967 SENER designed and built a scientific rocket launch tower in Kiruna, Sweden. In those days, the dreams of SENER's co-founder José Manuel “Manu” de Sendagorta turned SENER’s space adventure into a reality.

SENER in Space comic: “SENER, a Stellar Trajectory"

The comic was created by Galician illustrator Pablo Rosendo.

El cómic es obra del ilustrador Pablo Rosendo.

SENER celebrates its 50th anniversary in the aerospace sector

In 1967 a team of engineers from SENER began to work on a special project, in a context with special characteristics they had never taken on before.

Interview with Diego Rodríguez and Aleksandra Bukala

Diego Rodríguez, SENER’s Space and Defense Director, and Aleksandra Bukala, SENER’s Country Manager in Poland, summarize the history of SENER in the Space sector, and review the main milestones since its origins with the Kiruna project to its participation in future mission such us ExoMars 2020.

Space: technology in the state of the art

European countries met in Switzerland in 1960 to lay the foundations for what would become the European Space Research Organization (ESRO), now the European Space Agency (ESA). Spain was present at this meeting, although in a very modest position.

Nevertheless, the meeting provided all the impulse that SENER’s Managing Director at the time, José Manuel “Manu” de Sendagorta, needed to embark upon research in the field of aerospace, with the support of his former professor Carlos Sánchez Tarifa –who was working as an aeronautics engineer at the Spanish National Aerospace Technology Institute (INTA)– and the irreplaceable José “Txetxu” Rivacoba.