Welsh company Labtech, which makes microwave printed circuit boards for the global telecommunications, defense and space markets, has announced that its European Space Agency qualification has been extended to 2009.

The company, which has a workforce of 90 at its headquarters in Presteigne, has ESA approval to manufacture space-qualified printed circuit boards using Duroid RT6002 and Duroid RT6002 with aluminium back planes.

Bob Lowther, Labtech's sales and marketing director, said, “The extension to our ESA qualification is excellent news as we see the space market as a key element to our continued success.”

Labtech is playing a key role in a satellite project to monitor the Mediterranean area for natural disasters.

Microwave printed circuit boards manufactured by the company are being used in the radar component of the COSMO-SkyMed Satellite project, a French-Italian Earth Observation system being built by Alenia Spazio in Italy.

The satellites will be equipped with synthetic aperture radar that provides high-resolution images. Labtech has been selected by Alenia Spazio to supply the project for the next three years.