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Thales Alenia Space strengthens its leading position in 2007

22 January 2008

Thales and Finmeccanica create a space alliance
In April 2007, the European Commission approved the transfer to Thales of Alcatel-Lucent's shares in Alcatel Alenia Space - now called Thales Alenia Space (owned 67% by Thales, 33% by Finmeccanica) - and Telespazio (67% Finmeccanica, 33% Thales).

A good year for communications satellites

* Increased market share through the acquisition of new customers: Yahsat (United Arab Emirates), Telenor (Norway) and Indosat (Indonesia).
* Contracts signed for six geostationary satellites, for a 26% market share: Thor6 for Telenor, Palapa-D for Indosat, Arabsat-5A and BADR-5 for Arabsat (as co-prime with Astrium) and Yahsat-1A & 1B (the latter worth 1.6 billion dollars as co-prime with Astrium).
* Payloads: Thales Alenia Space signed the AmerHis2 contract for Hispasat's Amazonas-2 satellite (Spain), and will supply two payloads for the Loutch 5A and 5B satellites built by NPO-PM of Russia, giving it 35% of the commercial market.
* Signature of an extension contract for the ground control segment dedicated to the Globalstar constellation, for which Thales Alenia Space has already complete prime contractor responsibility for the satellite segment.
* Culmination of Alphabus platform development: the first flight model will be used for the joint ESA/Inmarsat mission Alphasat (Alphabus is being developed jointly by Thales Alenia Space and Astrium).
* Signature of an industrial cooperation agreement by Thales Alenia Space and NPO-PM, providing for the development of a high-power multimission satellite platform (Express 4000), which will bolster NPO-PM's industrial leadership in Russia.

Rising to environmental challenges

* Contract signed for the first satellite in the European program GMES, Sentinel-1, for 229 million euros.
* Provision of two Emergesat containers to the Casques Rouge Foundation, which helps humanitarian disaster victims worldwide.
* Study contracts for the Meteosat third generation ground segment (MTG) and for AMESD (GMES in Africa).
* Operational startup of the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) on the Metop meteorological satellite; initial results indicate decisive advances in digital forecasting, and have been warmly welcomed by all users as a global success.

A lead role in Mars exploration
Thales Alenia Space, chosen as prime contractor for ExoMars, giving Europe a pivotal role in future Mars exploration endeavors, carried out studies for ESA that helped define a detailed mission scenario.

Gearing up for Europe's future defense space observation system

* Working for French defense procurement agency DGA, Thales Alenia Space carried out the conceptual study for Europe's future space observation system, MUSIS.
* Working for French space agency CNES, Thales Alenia Space carried out the conceptual study for the post-Helios optical space system.

Participation in 13 missions using all types of launchers

* 4 communications satellites: Galaxy 17, Chinasat 6B, Star One C1, and RASCOM-QAF1
* 3 observation satellites: Cosmo-SkyMed-1 & 2, Radarsat-2
* 1 International Space Station module: Node 2
* 2 radar observation payloads: SAR-Lupe 2 & 3
* 1 scientific payload: Agile
* 8 first-generation Globalstar LEO satellites (in two launches)

New certification for all Thales Alenia Space entities
Thales Alenia Space has obtained 3 major certifications, ISO9001, EN9100 and AQAP2110, acknowledging the maturity level of the whole company.