The company has to date equipped the control centers for 157 telecommunications satellites, for clients such as Hispasat, Eutelsat, SES Astra, Arabsat, Nilesat, Globalstar, NASA and ESA.

The Spanish high technology firm GMV has become the global leader in supplying ground control systems for telecommunications satellites: 45% of commercial telecommunications satellite launches made during 2010 use GMV technology for their ground control. This places the company ahead of Integral Systems from the United States in that privileged position.

Ground control system centers are complex installations that enable monitoring of equipment on a satellite and remote intervention in case of possible malfunctions. The centers have sophisticated systems of hardware and software, as well as large antennas that are strategically distributed in order to allow communication with the satellites while in orbit.

In addition to twelve “telco” satellites, GMV has so far this year supplied its systems for another nine satellites with missions of a different nature: scientific, Earth observation, space telescopes and lunar expeditions.

GMV’s success has also been recognized by its inclusion in the list of the sector’s most prestigious companies, put together by the space aeronautics publication Space News. This is the first time that a Spanish company has been included in the ranking, which includes such well-known firms as EADS, Thales Alenia Space, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.