SHEFFIELD-BASED Chesterfield Special Cylinders (CSC) has won a contract from the European Space Agency and the French government to supply high pressure gas cylinders for the future launches of its space rockets, including Ariane 5, Vega and Soyuz.
The deal has been sub-contracted by the Italian space sector specialist Telematic Solutions to design and manufacture 15 bespoke 1,000-litre cylinders to provide the necessary helium for pressurisation of tanks implemented on the rocket launcher in French Guiana.
The specially-designed products will be delivered to French Guiana in the spring and first used later this year.
CSC’s business development manager Daniel Millard said: “The European space programme is one of the world’s leading engineering projects, so obviously every single component has to be 100% reliable.
“It is a mark of CSC’s reputation that our cylinders will be relied on in this project for some time to come and recognition of our designers’ and engineers’ skill that CSC has been chosen as a programme partner.”
