The head of the Goonhilly Ground Station, which played a vital role in the Moon mission, is stepping down

The leading man behind Cornwall’s pioneering space and satellite communications company has stepped down from his role after being responsible for its revival. Ian Jones, from Goonhilly Earth Station, left the company earlier this month.

At the helm of the former BT facility, Mr Jones was a passionate and fierce supporter of the work being done at the satellite site. Just last week the founder of the company, based near Helston on the Lizard Peninsula, was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his service to space communications and was honored in the King’s Birthday List.

While the first satellite dish was built on the site in 1962, since 2014 it has been owned by Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd (GES), which is a private company founded by the tech entrepreneur himself. A spokesman for the Goonhilly site said it would continue to “provide exceptional service” despite its departure.

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GES is one of Cornwall’s biggest success stories of the last decade, creating high value jobs and apprenticeships for young people. This is something Mr Jones previously said would increase as more contracts with space agencies around the world come through. Last year, Mr Jones told CornwallLive: “We have a direct phone line to the NASA and ESA control rooms on launch days.”

And with exciting things in store for the company, in the summer of 2023 India became the first country to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole, with the Cornish space station playing a vital role in the Moon race. History was made in August when the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed on the moon six weeks after launch from a spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.

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The craft became the first to land on the southern region of the lunar surface, which is believed to contain deep craters of water ice, and the landing was met with cheers and applause from mission control at the Satish Dhawan Space Center. Shortly after landing, as the Moon rose above our horizon, the Goonhilly ground station was able to take over from a station in Australia to pick up signals from the lunar craft, with one of its giant antennas picking up large amounts of data.

Mr Jones said of the milestone: “We are very excited for the Indian Space Agency and for India for this amazing achievement. To be able to go on a mission to the moon and land at the South Pole and explore the surface of the moon is extraordinary.” The main space communications facility played and continues to play a key role in the mission, retrieving data from Chandrayaan-3, which is transmitted to the Indian Space and Research Organisation.

Companies House shows that Mr Jones resigned from his role at GES on 7 June 2024. A Goonhilly spokesman said: “Ian Jones is no longer the director of Goonhilly. The responsibilities and duties previously held by Ian have been seamlessly transferred to our Executive Chairman, Kenn Herskind.

“Kenn brings extensive experience and a deep understanding of our industry, which will ensure continuity in leadership and operations. Goonhilly remains steadfast in its mission to lead in our sector – continuing to deliver exceptional services globally, while driving our ambition to advance the UK’s space communications capabilities.”