European leader in satellite systems and a major player in orbital infrastructures, Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%). Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio embody the two groups’ “Space Alliance”. Thales Alenia Space sets the global standard in solutions for space telecoms, radar and optical Earth observation, defense and security, navigation and science. The company, which achieved revenues of Euro 2 billion in 2010, has a total of 7,200 employees located in 11 industrial sites in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Germany.
Thales Alenia Space is at the heart of the most high-performance satellite technologies in both civil and defense sectors. The company is deeply involved in:
- Environmental projects based on Earth observation such as the Kopernikus (formerly Global Monitoring for Environment and Safety GMES) program with Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3, Meteorology such as MSG (Thales Alenia Space provided all the Meteosat satellites for Eumetsat), Climatology as satellite prime contractor for SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) mission;
- Defense, as prime contractor for the French Syracuse (I, II and III) and the Italian (Sicral) telecommunication systems as well as for the Italian Earth Observation system COSMO-SkyMed; and main partner of the German telecom program (Satcom BW) and of the Earth observation programs Helios (France) and SAR-Lupe (Germany);
- Navigation with Galileo and prime contractor of EGNOS - the precursor of Galileo;
- Science and Exploration, as prime contractor for the ExoMars mission - one of the most ambitious exploration missions in the near future, and for the GOCE satellite (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer);
- Space Infrastructure and Transportation as provider of 50% of the ISS pressurized volume. Today, Thales Alenia Space is the leading European supplier of satellite-based solutions for Defense and Security, with strong positions in both space and ground segments. In addition, the company is the European benchmark supplier of facility operational services for the European Space Agency (ESA), the French space agency CNES, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) as well as for the French, Italian and German Ministries of Defense, the Defense procurement agency DGA and other major customers. Thales Alenia Space is also active in the civil-military satellite export market, through Koreasat 5 in South Korea, Star One in Brazil and Yahsat in United Arab Emirates.