The Company | History

The roots of MDA - Orbital Optics are from within the Space Science and Technology Department (SSTD) of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.  It was their technology that was spun out to create Orbital Optics Limited.

The Imaging Systems Division of SSTD specializes in the research, design, development and engineering of advance imaging systems for space science, earth observation and ground based systems.

Following the development of several Star Trackers the Badr-B and Merlin CCD cameras and the TopSat 2.5 m resolution camera the technology has now progressed to enable attractive, low cost, high resolution imagers to be built for commercial use.

In March 2007 MDA of Canada acquired a controlling share in the company to add to its existing radar and satcom payloads, and its turnkey satellite mission offerings. The company Orbital Optics Ltd then changed it trading name to MDA - Orbital Optics.

MDA also has access through RAL to the 12m Ground Station which was acquired by RAL in 1980 and is a fully steerable S-Band antenna. It is accompanied by a complete JPL Block IIIc Unified S-Band telemetry and command system, which had originally served the Apollo missions at the Madrid tracking station.   A 4.5m antenna is capable of both X and S band reception and is located at the Chilbolton site.  A 2.5m antenna is capable of S band reception and has been operated by RAL for the NOAA ACE project.