The extension of a satellite manufacturing centre in Oxfordshire will feature a new clean-room provided by Gateshead-based WHP (www.whp-engineering.com), a multi-disciplinary engineering company that provides both stand-alone and turn-key solutions to customers around Europe.

It will design and build a 440m² clean-room facility with seven satellite production and assembly areas at the Disruptive Innovation for Space Centre (DISC) on the Harwell Campus near Didcot.

Delivered and run by the Satellite Applications Catapult, this new addition to the DISC facility will be completed this year as part of an investment programme supported by the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.

It will increase the scope of the R&D, manufacturing and testing services available in the UK to support the supply chain involved in the innovation, prototyping and small-scale manufacture of space technologies, including spacecraft and launch vehicles.

WHP project manager Richard Graham said: “The DISC contract will see us working in a new industry sector, offering our clean-room expertise to a customer that requires the highest standards of quality and excellence.

“We look forward to delivering a leading-edge clean-room capability at the Harwell site, as well as developing our presence further in the wider space industry market.”