QinetiQ’s ion propulsion team has been named “team of the year” for its outstanding contribution to space exploration at the recent Sir Arthur Clarke awards.
The award comes at the end of a landmark year for the QinetiQ ion propulsion team which saw the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) GOCE Spacecraft become the first to launch with QinetiQ’s T5 ion thrusters on board and QinetiQ begin work supplying advanced T6 thrusters for ESA’s future BepiColombo mission to Mercury.
“We knew about the nomination but winning the award came as a complete surprise to all of us, ” said cheif engineer Neil Wallace. “It was a great team effort and reflects the hard work of many individuals for almost 20 years.”
