By NORMAN DE BONO, SUN MEDIA

A London firm is lifting off with the European Space Agency.

Sciencetech Inc. on Meg Drive has landed a more than $2-million contract to supply technology for a satellite launching in October that will study interstellar radiation.

"It was an international bid and we won it. This gives us great satisfaction, it's a good feeling," said Alex Quaglia, vice-president of operations for Sciencetech Inc. "When you do a good job that no one else seems to be able to do, it is a nice feeling."

Sciencetech will supply technology to help calibrate instruments on the satellite that will measure radiation hurtling toward Earth.

The deal is not only good for Sciencetech, but illustrates that London is home to firms that compete globally, added Steve Glickman, director of business retention for the London Economic Development Corp.

"It validates the significance of their work. They created this and it shows they are winning in a global marketplace," said Glickman. "We can lay claim to a global leader and innovator."

In fact, Sciencetech received a letter of commendation from the French firm which contracted them for the job.

"The many interactions we had with Sciencetech Inc. led to a performant spectrometer tailored to our needs," stated the letter from Francois Pajot, scientific manager at Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, which supplies technology to the space agency.

"We had very good contact with the teams in charge of this project at Sciencetech Inc., and they offer a very satisfactory support."

The instruments will help "map " the radiation which is believed to stem from the big bang of 30 billion years ago, which some scientists maintain explains the origin of the universe. The satellite will measure that radiation with greater clarity than has been measured before, said Quaglia.

"When you look up at the sky you see stars and there is radiation in the visible spectrum, but way beyond that is cosmic background radiation and that is what they are looking at," he said. "They have a series of radiation detectors and we made equipment for them to calibrate the sensors on the satellite."

By studying radiation, the satellite may enable scientists to learn more about dark matter and dark energy, which make up much of the universe but about which scientists know little, said Quaglia.

Sciencetech did work for NASA about eight years ago developing sensor technology for satellites, but it was a smaller contract, he said. It has been in business 23 years and has about 30 staff.

But work for satellites is unusual for the firm. Its work in optical spectroscopy -- an analysis of light -- is used most often in medical treatment to study tumours, analytic chemistry and drug development.

Sciencetech is also planning to move to a 12,000 square foot building on 1.5 acres of land at Highbury Road and Highway 401 in the Forest City Industrial Park. It is now located on Meg Drive."