On 21 February the president of the Portuguese Fundação Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and the Head of Portugal’s ESA delegation, Prof. Paulo Ferrão, visited GMV’s Lisbon premises.

During the visit GMV presented its main ongoing space activities and the plans in Portugal for this strategic area.

The visit included a demonstration of the test bench for the steering mechanism of a launcher (Thruster Vector Control), that GMV was hosting in the laboratory within the context of the NGT-ATB (New Generation Launcher and Space Transportation Advanced Avionics Testbed), ESA project led from Portugal. The demonstration included a realistic command profile of one of the VEGA launcher’s last stages – AVUM – followed by a more playful demonstration consisting of spinning a small ball inside the nozzle.

In the coming months GMV will integrate the TVC and remaining elements (e.g. sensors) in the European Space Agency’s avionics test bench, which is used to test launchers’ flight software in a real onboard computer.