Deimos Engenharia / History

Deimos Engenharia was born in 2002 from the entrepreneurship of a number of Portuguese and foreign engineers and investors that shared with Deimos Space a common vision and passion for Space.
From the first moment the objective was set clear: to deliver top-level engineering design services in the space sector.
Deimos Engenharia pioneered space engineering activities in Portugal at a time the Portuguese involvement in space was starting to be a reality soon after the country joined the European Space Agency in 2000. By then, the few space engineering activities on-going were mostly concentrated in a few dispersed R&D academic initiatives.

15-03-2003

First steps: toward Venus

By putting up a team of excellent engineers and setting up a first range of partnerships with the most relevant universities and companies in Portugal, Deimos Engenharia was able to start its first projects with the European Space Agency in 2003 - one of them would lead the company to a 3-year presence in Venus Express mission control system development at ESOC (ESA).

18-07-2003

Deimos Engenharia co-funds ProEspaço

Soon after, realizing the need for an active representation and visibility of the Portuguese space industry, DEIMOS joined the list of the 5 founder members of ProEspaço – the Portuguese association of space companies, keeping its chairmanship since then.

25-12-2003

Christmas in Mars

The activities succeed at fast pace: In 2004, DEIMOS was part of the operational team of Mars Express in the day that Beagle 2 was to land on Mars. The objective was to locate the landing site; the tool was a state-of- the-art algorithm of planetary navigation developed by Deimos Engenharia in a 4-month record time.

08-08-2005

Moving to new premises

With a growing number of activities being awarded, Deimos Engenharia team grew bigger and in 2005, with a staff of 20 people, the company moved to its new premises in the heart of the new Lisbon business district - Parque das Nações.

10-10-2005

Joining Innovation - Affiliation to COTEC Portugal

In 2005, Deimos Engenharia was admitted as a full member of COTEC Portugal (www.cotec.pt)– the association of Portuguese leading innovation companies - as recognition of its outstanding performance in innovation and high-tech developments.

15-03-2006

New challenges: Galileo and space exploration

Above all, growth meant knowledge and experience, so the company was awarded everyday with more complex and stringent activities. The development of one of the most critical components of Galileo’s mission control segment is a landmark that DEIMOS proudly states, as well as it is the pioneering visual-based navigation technologies we are developing for future ESA exploration missions.

24-04-2007

Fostering R&D - Afilliation to MIT Portugal Program

Deimos Engenharia was selected in 2007 to be a part of the restricted group of the MIT-Portugal Programme affiliated companies (www.mitportugal.org), a long-term collaboration of Portuguese Government with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) focusing on R&D, and one of the most relevant of its kind in the world.

14-06-2007

Making history in Earth Observation

In June 2007, Deimos made history with ESA. The intensive testing programme of MIRAS - the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis to be carried by ESA’s Earth Explorer satellite SMOS - was completed at ESTEC, with Deimos team being highly congratulated for successfully processing the first images of the instrument, the result of a 3-year remarkable work on the state-of-art Level 1 Processor prototype.

SMOS Satellite will be lauched in 2008. It will be an important tool for measuring soil moisture and ocean salinity, two key parameters for deriving global scale climate forecasts.

16-03-2009

DEIMOS is now PME Líder

IAPMEI, the Portuguese Institute for the Support of Small and Medium Enterprises and Innovation, has recognised DEIMOS Engenharia as PME Lider (SME Leader). This means the company is considered as a catalyst for the national economy, for its performance qualities and risk profile.

13-07-2009

DEIMOS is now PME Excelência

PME Excelência are soild companies with high competitive standards, with innovation and internationalisation strategies, actively contributing for regional development and employment dynamics. This is an initiative of IAPMEI, the Portuguese Institute for the Support of Small and Medium Enterprises and Innovation, together with
Turismo de Portugal, I.P., Banco Espírito Santo, Banco BPI, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Millennium BCP and Santander Totta banks.
375 companies from various sectors were recognised PME Excelência in 2009.

30-07-2009

DEIMOS-1 successfully launched

Deimos-1 was successfully launched on the 29th July at 20H45 (CET), Baikonour.

DEIMOS-1 is the first Earth Observation satellite to be launched, operated and explored by the DEIMOS group. The satellite is part of a complete Earth Observation system designed and operated by the DEIMOS Group, for the development of services and applications in the areas of environmental and natural resources monitoring. The unique combination of a large swath - 600 Km- and a temporal resolution of 3 days will allow d images the whole Iberian Peninsula twice a week and global coverage of Europe every ten days.

01-01-2010

DEIMOS Group is now the technology branch of ELECNOR

With the integration of two ELECNOR technology companies into the group, DEIMOS is the technology branch of ELECNOR from January 2010. Apart form Aerospace, DEIMOS is now working in the areas of Automation and Remote Control, Information Systems, Telecommunication Network, Security and Technological Infrastructure Development.