Today, 24 June 2022, RHEA Group celebrates our 30th anniversary. Since our formation in 1992, founded on a contract from the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, we have grown to a company of over 750 staff working across 11 countries in space, security and system engineering.
The last 30 years have seen many changes in the industries within which RHEA works, and these have been mirrored in our company. Some things have remained constant, however. RHEA is still privately owned and still trusted by our clients to lead major national and international projects.
RHEA was founded by three engineers in the Liège Science Park in Belgium. Following on from the contract with ESOC, we acquired our second client, EUMETSAT, in 1993. Thirty years later, we still provide services to both agencies, as well as other space organizations including the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA).
Since our creation in 1992, RHEA has grown both organically and through acquisitions. From a foundation in the space sector, we have broadened our scope to encompass cyber and physical security expertise and a leading role in system engineering.
The last 12 years have seen the most significant period of growth, following the change in strategic direction instigated by André Sincennes, who became Managing Director in 2010 after joining the company in 2007: “Our focus changed to embrace innovation and to increase our ability to deliver projects and services to meet – and, where possible, exceed – customer expectations. This, along with the constant commitment of our staff, has resulted in our continuing rapid expansion. I am delighted to be celebrating this 30th anniversary and am looking forward to realising our ambition of growing to over 1,000 staff by 2024.”
RHEA’s experts pride themselves on innovative solutions across the industries in which they work. Nevertheless, some of our solutions have long pedigrees, including the Manufacturing and Operations Information System (MOIS), which has been used for mission automation for over 120 space missions both institutional and commercial, since it was originally developed in 1997.
Our Concurrent Model-based Engineering Tool (COMET™), based on our hugely successful CDP4 Concurrent Design Platform, is now used by ESA for concurrent design at its Concurrent Design Facility at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) at Noordwijk in the Netherlands.
Sean Ainley, Programme Director at Astroscale, said: “RHEA has successfully supported ground segment activities throughout the design, delivery and operation of the ELSA-d mission. During the on-orbit phases in particular, the RHEA and Astroscale engineering teams worked closely together, facilitating the success of the programme. It was an effective collaboration and we are grateful to RHEA for their support and efforts on this pioneering mission. Congratulations to the RHEA team on the 30-year celebration!
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Discover our heritage in our company timeline.