This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Thales Alenia Space è una realtà industriale di eccellenza a livello mondiale nel settore dei sistemi e delle infrastrutture spaziali: dalla navigazione alle telecomunicazioni, dalla meteorologia al controllo ambientale, dalla difesa alla scienza e all’osservazione per finire alle infrastrutture destinate alla Stazione Spaziale Internazionale. Un grande gruppo mondiale, che nasce da una joint venture composta per il 67% da Thales e il 33% da Leonardo, con stabilimenti in 8 diversi paesi europei (Francia, Italia, Belgio, Spagna, Germania, Inghilterra, Svizzera e Polonia) e con 7,500 dipendenti sparsi in tutto il mondo.

In Italia Thales Alenia Space ha quattro siti produttivi (Roma, Torino, Milano e L’Aquila) nei quali lavorano oltre 2,200 addetti

Numero uno in Europa nel comparto spaziale, nel corso degli ultimi anni la società italo-francese ha rafforzato le sue posizioni di primo piano grazie a un grande dinamismo che ha portato all’apertura di nuovi mercati e all’acquisizione di nuovi clienti, a cominciare dalla Russia per passare al continente Americano fino al Sud Est Asiatico.

La società è impegnata in:

• Progetti ambientali, fondati sull’osservazione terrestre, come il programma di Monitoraggio Globale per l’Ambiente e la Sicurezza Copernico (in precedenza GMES), e come il programma MSG (Thales Alenia Space ha fornito tutti i satelliti Meteosat per Eumetsat) nel settore metereologico;

• Difesa, con importanti programmi come i satelliti per telecomunicazioni francesi (Syracuse I, II e III) e italiani (SICRAL), e con i programmi di osservazione civile-militare come Helios (Francia), COSMO-SkyMed (Italia) e Sar Lupe (Germania);

• Navigazione, con Galileo;

• Scienza ed Esplorazione, in qualità di prime contractor nella progettazione della missione ExoMars – una delle più ambiziose missioni di esplorazione – e per il satellite GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer); E’ attualmente all’opera per programmi come Bepi Colombo, avviato nel 2007 con l’obiettivo di esplorare per la prima volta in modo ravvicinato e sistematico il pianeta Mercurio ed Euclid, che sarà lanciato nel 2020 , dedicato ad Energia Oscura e Materia Oscura, ingredienti essenziali ma misteriosi dell’odierno “Modello Standard” della Cosmologia Fisica;

• Infrastrutture spaziali, La Stazione Spaziale Internazionale è uno dei progetti tecnologici più avanzati al mondo e Thales Alenia Space ha progettato e costruito più del 50% del volume pressurizzato della stazione, ossia lo spazio abitato. La società ha inoltre contribuito ai relativi sistemi di lancio, trasporto e rientro.

Oggi, Thales Alenia Space è il principale fornitore europeo di soluzioni satellitari per la Difesa e per la Sicurezza, con posizioni consolidate sia nei sistemi satellitari sia terrestri. Inoltre, la società è il fornitore di riferimento europeo dei servizi operativi per le strutture dell’Agenzia Spaziale Europea (ESA), l’agenzia spaziale francese CNES, l’agenzia spaziale italiana (ASI), come per i Ministeri della Difesa Italiano, Francese e Tedesco. Thales Alenia Space è anche attiva nel mercato di esportazione satellitare civile-militare, attraverso Koreasat 5 e 7 nella Corea del Sud e Star One in Brasile.

Thales Alenia Space è uno dei principali attori mondiali nel settore delle telecomunicazioni spaziali, con clienti negli Stati Uniti, Russia, America Latina, Africa e Medio Oriente, e con una crescente attività commerciale verso i mercati asiatici.

Thales Alenia Space è anche il leader mondiale di payloads di telecomunicazioni con oltre 200 ordini (circa il 30% della quota di mercato del settore). Inoltre, siamo tra i leader mondiali negli apparati spaziali operanti nelle microonde, con prodotti integrati nel 50% di tutti i satelliti costruiti al mondo. Thales Alenia Space non è solo il leader mondiale dei satelliti geostazionari per il clima (prime contractor per i satelliti Meteosat di prima ,seconda e terza generazione- MTG), ma ha anche acquisito grande esperienza nelle maggiori missioni climatologiche a bassa orbita (Calipso per CNES/NASA) e nella costruzione di ground segment per l’osservazione della Terra.

La società è leader Europeo nello sviluppo di strumenti per le immagini ad alta precisione, ottici e radar, e leader mondiale per quelli dell’altimetria spaziale.  Grazie all’esperienza acquisita nel campo dei satelliti di monitoraggio ambientale Cryosat e Envisat per conto dell’Agenzia Spaziale Europea (ESA), e dei satelliti di osservazione terrestre e oceanica, SPOT, Jason 1 & 2 e SMOS (Umidità al Suolo e Salinità dell’Oceano) realizzati rispettivamente per CNES/NASA ed ESA, Thales Alenia Space ha assunto un ruolo fondamentale anche nel programma europeo Copernico (Monitoraggio Globale per l’Ambiente e la Sicurezza), che dovrà costituire un sistema globale di monitoraggio, con il compito di realizzare i satelliti, Sentinel-1 e Sentinel-3. Con Copernico Thales Alenia Space ha la possibilità di impiegare tutte le sue competenze in meteorologia, monitoraggio ambientale e osservazione della Terra.

Il know-how sviluppato nel campo delle tecnologie civili e militari ha permesso a Thales Alenia Space di assumere un impegno rilevante in ORFEO (Optical and Radar Federated Earth Observation) e nel sistema duale Italiano COSMO-SkyMed.

La sofisticata tecnologia di Thales Alenia Space è presente nelle più importanti missioni scientifiche per l’esplorazione dell’Universo, a partire da Cassini-Huygens, che ha raggiunto l’orbita di Saturno dopo un viaggio di oltre 7 anni nel sistema solare e che è in procinto di terminare la sua vita operativa, fino a Mars Express, Rosetta e Venus Express ed ExoMars. Il programma di ExoMars, con un valore complessivo di 600 milioni di euro, rappresenta una delle missioni di esplorazione più importanti. Thales Alenia Space è prime contractor per ExoMars.

Thales Alenia Space è sin dagli inizi un partner importante di Galileo, il nuovo sistema europeo per la navigazione satellitare, Thales Alenia Space ha definito l’architettura dell’intero sistema per conto dell’Unione Europea e l’architettura dei satelliti per l’ESA. Thales Alenia Space è stato un partner fondamentale in Galileo sin dalla sua fondazione, responsabile del segmento di Terra, dell’integrazione dei satelliti e della fornitura dei dispositivi critici e dei sottosistemi (fase IOV).

Thales Alenia Space ha progettato e costruito il 50% del volume pressurizzato della stazione, ossia lo spazio abitato. La società ha inoltre contribuito ai relativi sistemi di lancio, trasporto e rientro.

In particolare, Thales Alenia Space è prime contractor per i tre Moduli Logistici Pressurizzati Multiuso (MPLM) Leonardo/ Raffaello/ Donatello; i Nodi 2 e 3 (gli elementi di interconnessione tra i vari moduli pressurizzati su ISS); la Cupola (modulo di osservazione); ed è anche tra i principali realizzatori del laboratorio scientifico Columbus per la ricerca in ambiente di microgravità e per il Veicolo di Trasferimento Automatico (ATV), che darà supporto logistico vitale alla Stazione Spaziale Internazionale trasportando dalla Terra carburante, aria e acqua potabile.

Inoltre, Thales Alenia Space ha fornito all’ESA il veicolo IXV ( Intermediate eXperimental Vehicule, un sistema di rientro in atmosfera, mentre per Orbital realizza i cargo pressurizzati (PCMs) destinati al rifornimento della ISS.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Products and activities

Thales Alenia Space is a Joint Venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%).

Combining 40 years of experience and  a unique diversity of expertise, talents and cultures, Thales Alenia Space architects design and deliver high technology solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures.

The Space Alliance

A joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent companies’ “Space Alliance”, which offers a complete range of services and solutions. Thales Alenia Space posted consolidated revenues of approximately 2.15 billion euros in 2021 and has around 8,900 employees. We are present in 10 countries with 17 sites in Europe and a plant in the US.

Activities

Space to connect

Bridging the digital divide and connecting people anywhere, anytime

Today, citizens want to be connected anywhere and anytime; people want to have access to more and more content at any given moment; and we want to eliminate all shadow zones and bridge the digital divide to ensure connectivity anywhere in the world.

Satellite communications systems, especially the digital variety, are undoubtedly the best solution to meet the requirements of a fast changing and fiercely competitive market.

At the forefront of very high throughput satellite solutions

Satellite systems, especially the latest digital models, are clearly the best way to address the requirements of the fast-changing and highly competitive telecom market. New market segments are also emerging, especially aeronautical and maritime communications, driving a boom in connectivity requirements.

The very high throughput satellite (VHTS) solutions spearheaded by Thales Alenia Space are digital, to offer tremendous flexibility. Digital VHTS systems combine high capacity, agility and competitiveness, allowing operators to adapt distribution across their coverage zone at any given moment. In other words, this type of payload addresses the changing needs of operators throughout a typical telecommunications satellite mission’s lifetime. To mention a few, we will provide EUTELSAT KONNECT VHTS, featuring a powerful digital processor to enable the quick deployment of high-speed Internet access in areas that are isolated or have low population density.

We are also manufacturing telecommunications satellites, such as SES-17, offering connectivity services for aviation passengers. With contracts for Indonesia as well as for Eutelsat or Hispasat operators, Thales Alenia Space is a world leader on the Very High Throughput Satellite market.

VHTS payload + Spacebus Neo platform: a very dynamic duo

All Spacebus Neo platforms feature all-electric propulsion and combine higher performance, greater robustness, modular design and higher power. Electric propulsion means a drastic reduction in satellite launch weight.

Spacebus Neo satellites perfectly meet our customers’ expectations for competitiveness, flexibility and multi-launcher compatibility. The VHTS payload matched to the all-electric Spacebus Neo platform makes for a very dynamic duo.

Space Inspire: our new digital and reconfigurable in-orbit solution

Our customers are increasingly facing an imperative need to offer advanced new services and seize new commercial opportunities at any given moment. Based on a new medium-size platform, the Space Inspire™ solution is software-defined, ultra-flexible and fully reprogrammable in orbit, including for coverage zones.

With our new product line, digital technology and flexibility allow satellite operators to dynamically allocate capacity where and when needed, in any bandwidth. Space Inspire™ will redefine the fast changing telecommunications market, confirming Thales Alenia Space position at the forefront of today’s space communications market.

Thales Alenia Space, the global benchmark in communications constellations

Our company built, under its prime contractorship, 125 satellites for three different constellations (Globalstar 2, O3b and Iridium® NEXT), Leveraging on its long-standing expertise regarding constellations, Thales Alenia Space was recently selected as prime contractor for Telesat’ s Lightspeed, an upcoming telecommunications constellation comprising 298 Low Earth Orbit satellites. With this new program, Thales Alenia Space confirms its position as the industrial benchmark in global satellite constellations offering the world’s most efficient services for mobile connectivity (maritime, in-flight), backhauling of 4G and 5G communications, government networks and enterprise communications.

Space to secure and defend

France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Turkey, Brazil, Egypt and more trust us to provide them with elements from our brand offer of defense telecommunications, Very High Resolution optical or radar instruments, ground control systems and testing & integration centers.

Secure communications for armed forces

Thales Alenia Space has supplied military telecommunications systems as prime contractor for more than 30 years now. We are the exclusive domestic supplier in France, with four generations of Syracuse satellites, as well as providing two Sicral first-generation satellites plus the second-generation Sicral 2 for the Italian defense ministry, Athena-Fidus for military and dual (civil-military) telecommunications for France and Italy, and two Satcom BW satellites for Germany. Through Athena-Fidus and Sicral 2, Thales Alenia Space is at the heart of European defense collaboration. Our company is also a major industrial partner onboard Spain’s Spainsat NG satellites.

Thales Alenia Space has also exported products reflecting its dual telecom system expertise to Turkey, Brazil and South Korea.

Surveillance & Observation for field intelligence

A complete range of optical and radar observation systems

ntelligence, maritime surveillance, mapping, crisis management… Space-based systems give users, especially governments, access to a wide range of applications to guarantee their security and sovereignty. A number of countries have indicated a keen interest in acquiring space systems capable of independently supplying them with intelligence images. Thales Alenia Space, offering both optical and radar very-high-resolution instruments, draws on over 30 years of experience to propose a complete range of observation systems designed to meet market expectations. For instance, Thales Alenia Space  is prime contractor for Italy’s radar-based COSMO-SkyMed first and second generation Earth Observation satellites. We also built Turkey’s Earth Observation satellite, including its high-resolution instrument. For more than 30 years now, Thales Alenia Space has been the exclusive supplier of all very-high-resolution optical instruments for French intelligence satellites, including Pleiades, Helios and CSO.

We were also chosen by South Korea to supply four Earth observation satellites with synthetic aperture radars (SAR). Today, drawing on our unrivaled expertise in optical and radar technologies, we are developing brand-new Earth observation products, including high revisit solutions.

Via our Joint Venture LeoStella, we are deploying BlackSky, a constellation of 60 optical observation satellites with resolution to within a meter and high revisit rates.

Space to observe & protect

By providing experts with information about the weather, the climate and the state of our planet, they can get ready for storms, understand the impact of climate change, devise plans to optimize the use of natural resources an protect at-risk populations – all while enabling sustainable development. 

Environmental monitoring & weather satellites

The Sentinel series of satellites, a key to Europe’s environmental monitoring efforts, is being developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of European Commission’s Copernicus program. There are six families of Sentinel satellites and instruments. Sentinel-1 provides continuity for the radar data gathered by ERS and Envisat. Sentinel-2 and -3 monitor land masses and oceans. The Sentinel-4 and -5 instruments are designed for meteorology and climatology missions, while Sentinel-6 will provide operational continuity for the Jason altimetry missions. Thales Alenia Space is prime contractor for the Sentinel-1 and -3 families, comprising four satellites each. The company is also in charge of the image ground segment for Sentinel-2, contributed to the imaging spectrometer for Sentinel-5P and will provide the Poseidon-4 radar altimeter for the Sentinel-6 mission.

 

Thales Alenia Space contributes as well to five of the six new Copernicus Expansion missions, three as prime contractor (CIMR, ROSE-L, CHIME) and two as payload supplier (CO2M, CRISTAL). These new satellites will be used to measure the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by human activity, monitor sea ice thickness and overlying snow depth, provide improved services for sustainable agriculture and biodiversity management, observe ocean behavior, and support precision agriculture and food security.

Moreover, we have already supplied a wide range of Earth Observation satellites and instruments used for oceanography, altimetry, meteorology, mapping, crisis management, climatology and much more. All Meteosat geostationary satellites were built by Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor. We have already produced seven first-generation Meteosat satellites and four Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites, and we are now working on the third generation (MTG). The latest generation will comprise four imaging and two sounding satellites.

Observing Space from Space

In 2018, the Space Alliance (between Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio) acquired a stake in NorthStar Earth & Space Inc, an information services company from Montreal, Canada. Together with NorthStar, and our JV LeoStella , Thales Alenia Space announced in 2020 the start of the production of the first 3 satellites of Skylark, the world’s first constellation to combat the threat of space collisions. Dedicated to applications for Space Situational Awareness and the monitoring of space debris, Skylark will be the most advanced commercial space-based environmental and near-space monitoring system.

Space to Explore

Exploring the Solar System and understanding the universe

Venus, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, the Moon, asteroids and comets… Thales Alenia Space is a major partner in Europe’s fantastic missions across the Solar System.

Thales Alenia Space is the overall prime contractor for the ExoMars mission, and a major contributor to the BepiColombo mission to explore Mercury, the most mysterious planet in the Solar System. The company led the Herschel & Planck science mission, deploying the largest space observatories ever developed in Europe. We also developed Corot, France’s own low-orbit “exoplanet” hunter (planets outside the Solar System), and we will be heavily involved in a new program called PLATO, also tasked with tracking exoplanets, but from the Lagrange 2 point.

Thales Alenia Space built 25 of the 64 huge parabolic antennas (Europe’s contribution) for the giant ALMA radiotelescope array located on the Atacama plateau in Chile. In addition, we played a lead role on the famous Rosetta-Philae comet mission [especially via assembly, integration and testing of the spacecraft], as well as on Cassini-Huygens. The Huygens space probe was built by Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor. Also on the agenda at Thales Alenia Space is the European program Euclid, which will help us better understand dark matter.

In the meantime, Europe is holding its breath in the run-up to the ExoMars 2022 mission. ESA’s rover on this mission should touch down on Mars in 2023. Fitted with a special drill built by Leonardo near Milan, the rover will take soil samples at a depth of two meters, in an attempt to discover evidence of past life (bacteria), while the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), launched in 2016, continues its mission in orbit around Mars, “sniffing” the Martian atmosphere to discover traces of methane gas in particular. Thales Alenia Space plays also a lead role regarding Mars Sample Return space exploration mission, that aims to bring Martian samples back to Earth.

Living & working off Earth

The ISS holds a special place in the hearts of Thales Alenia Space engineers based in Turin, Italy. Thales Alenia Space has in fact supplied fully half of the pressurized volume on the ISS, including Nodes 2 and 3, the Multipurpose Module, Multipurpose Logistics Modules (MPLM), Cupola and the Columbus lab structure, along with ATV resupply vessels and the structure for the Bishop commercial airlock from NanoRacks. In addition, Thales Alenia Space supplied pressurized cargo modules for the ATV and Cygnus resupply vessels. 

In 2020, Thales Alenia Space was awarded several contracts to build key modules dedicated to Gateway cislunar space station. The company will build ESPRIT and I-HAB modules as prime contractor on behalf of ESA and will provide Northrop Grumman with HALO’s pressurized module.

Lunar Gateway is at the hearth of NASA’s ARTEMIS ambitious program aiming to bring astronauts back to the Moon in the years to come. While American company CommStar Space Communications is counting on us to deploy a hybrid Earth-Moon communications relay satellite by 2023, we’ll also be supplying Earth-Moon telecom technologies for NASA’s VIPER rover, which will search for water on the surface. We’ve also been chosen by Axiom Space to provide 2 pressurized components of their future commercial space station, for which French designer Philippe Starck was selected to create interiors of the habitation module.

Thales Alenia Space is also a major partner onboard Orion, NASA’s human transportation vehicle for deep space exploration. Our company provides thermomechanical systems for Orion’s European Service Module in particular.

Following the success of the IXV atmospheric reentry demonstrator, Thales Alenia Space, with AVIO as co-contractor, will build ESA’s Space Rider, Europe’s new-generation, low-orbit, reusable space transport system.

On-Orbit servicing

Thales Alenia Space is offering a brand new on-orbit servicing solution. These space vehicles will be able to carry out a wide range of operations in orbit, including controlled reentry of space debris, robotic manipulation, extending a satellite’s service life, in-orbit refueling, inspection, etc. These vehicles will mark a real paradigm shift from a “stationary” to a “dynamic” space environment. If we ever start building lunar bases, on-orbit servicing could prove invaluable, especially for transporting the various components to be assembled.

Space to travel and navigate

Satellite systems provide the information that makes online maps and navigation apps a reality. It’s hard to remember the days before we could find our way just by typing a destination into a smartphone app or a car’s dashboard.

Today, we would all be lost without this—literally lost!

With programs such as EGNOS and Galileo, Thales Alenia Space is at the forefront of satellite navigation systems in Europe.

About EGNOS

EGNOS, for instance, is essential for applications where extreme accuracy and reliability are critical – such as helping airplanes land or navigating ships through narrow channels. We actually developed the EGNOS satellite system, which is used today to improve the performance of global navigation satellite systems (such as GPS) for people in Europe.

We were chosen by South Korean space agency KARI to produce KASS, their own version of EGNOS, which will provide Safety of Life and other services. We are also providing advanced geolocation solutions and leading the way in Search & Rescue through our MEOLUT Next solution for local user terminals.

About Galileo

The Galileo global navigation system is more than just satellites. An infrastructure on the ground is also needed to properly manage all the information sent in the signal from space. Even a microsecond clock error could give a position meters away from reality. In order to provide reliable information, Galileo depends on sensor stations, control centers, mission uplink stations and telemetry, tracking & command stations.

We are prime contractor for the Galileo Mission Segment (GMS) and the Galileo Security Facility (GSF). In 2021, Thales Alenia Space was awarded a contract by ESA and the European Commission to build 6 new Galileo Second Generation navigation satellites.

Geo-localization to enable the Internet of Things

In the frame of the Internet of Things (IoT) market, Thales Alenia Space was selected in 2020 by Omnispace company to manufacture the first two satellites of its future constellation. This is only the first step in Omnispace’s ambitious plan to develop a global constellation that will offer the world’s first hybrid 5G network. At the same time, we are system architect for Kineis, the first French IoT constellation comprising 25 nanosatellites.

 

Attached documents

• COSMO SKYMED ITA II GEN
• SENTINEL
• TASI ROMA

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• CHEMICALS, SURFACE AND SPECIAL TREATMENTS
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• PLATFORMS
• WEAPONS, WEAPON SYSTEMS AND AMMUNITION
• EQUIPMENT AND FITTING-OUT MATERIALS
• EQUIPMENT FOR
• COMMAND, CONTROL AND INFORMATION
• PLATFORMS
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• for space platforms
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