Pat Norris from LogicaCMG appointed Fellow Of Royal Institute Of Navigation

Recognition of 40 years contribution to the Space industry

Pat Norris, from LogicaCMG, has been appointed a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation. He was presented with his certificate of Fellowship by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh KG, KT, Hon FRIN at the Annual General Meeting of the Royal Institute of Navigation on Wednesday 19 October at the Royal Geographic Society, London.

Pat has contributed significantly to the US, European and UK Space industries over the years. His satellite navigation career began as a contractor supporting the NASA principal in NASA's National Geodetic Satellite Programme at the Goddard Space Flight Center outside Washington DC in 1966. He moved to Houston in 1968 to support NASA's Apollo programme, receiving the Apollo individual achievement award from Neil Armstrong in August 1969 for solving the longitude problem that had affected a third of NASA's tracking stations in time for the first moon landing. He was recruited by the European Space Agency (ESA) to help define Europe's first step into satellite navigation.

Since joining LogicaCMG in 1980 he has been involved in major European satellite navigation programmes, for example, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay services (EGNOS) and many parts of the Galileo programme. Pat has been involved in key space programmes such as Cassini-Huygens, Skynet 5 and MTSAT and with clients such as Intelsat, Eutelsat, Eumetsat, Inmarsat and ESA. Pat also serves on various trade association committees, DTI advisory panels and industry/parliament advisory groups, all concerned with space matters.

David Broughton, the Royal Institute of Navigation director, said “The appointment was made in recognition of his outstanding contribution to satellite navigation, geodesy and tracking over 40 years, together with significant support and advice to Government, industry and the Institute on space related matters".

Joe Hemming, managing director, space and defence, LogicaCMG said, “Pat has been instrumental in creating our company's leading software position in European space programmes. His in-depth knowledge of the Space industry has ensured we understand our client’s requirements and has enabled us to deliver complex software to the Space industry successfully. By sharing his vast knowledge gained from his 40 years in the industry, and coupled with our commercial telecoms experience drawn from others parts of our company, we have been able to grow a world-beating space team”.