Cannes, February 15, 2020 – The Cygnus spacecraft, dedicated to deliver supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), has been successfully launched by an Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia. Cygnus comprises two main sections: a Service Module from Northrop Grumman, and an enhanced Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM) developed and built by Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%). This is the 13th operational mission from Cygnus.

Solar Orbiter is a part of European Space Agency’s “Cosmic Vision” program Solar Orbiter will be Europe’s most advanced look at the Sun’s corona, thanks to Thales Alenia Space’s coronagraph Metis developed on behalf of Italian Space Agency (ASI) Heat Shield, designed and built by Thales Alenia Space for Airbus Defence and Space, will enable the entire mission and protect the spacecraft and its sophisticated instruments