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Sentinel-2: A new contract worth €195 million for Astrium

• Astrium will be prime contractor for the first optical satellite in the Sentinel series
• Disaster control, agriculture, population changes: this satellite is a new tool for Europe
• Sentinel 2 is dedicated to Earth observation and security in GMES

Friedrichshafen, 17 April 2008

Astrium has been appointed by ESA to be the prime contractor to build Sentinel-2, the first optical satellite in the Sentinel series. The main industrial contract worth €195 million was signed today, by Volker Liebig, ESA´s Director of Earth observation, Evert Dudok, CEO Astrium Satellites and Uwe Minne, Astrium´s Director of Earth Observation and Science in Friedrichshafen (Germany).

“This satellite is an important element of GMES and will enable Europe to constantly observe environmental changes“, said Volker Liebig, the Director for Earth Observation of ESA.

"Astrium has an outstanding track record in developing and building Earth observation satellites, including ERS, Envisat, Metop, Champ and TerraSAR-X. We are proud to be selected by ESA to provide a technology which will help us to improve our environment and to keep our planet safe and healthy," said Evert Dudok, CEO of Astrium Satellites.

Sentinel-2 will provide a permanent record of comprehensive data to help inform the agricultural sector (utilisation, coverage), forestry industry (population, damage, forest fires), disaster control (management, early warning) and humanitarian relief programmes. Sentinel-2 will also be able to observe natural disasters such as floods, volcanic eruptions, subsidence and landslides.

In the Sentinel-2 mission programme, Astrium in Friedrichshafen is responsible for the satellite’s system design and platform, as well as for satellite integration and testing. Astrium Toulouse will supply the multi-spectral imaging instrument (MSI), and Astrium Spain will be in charge of the satellite’s structure and will produce its thermal equipment and cable harness. The industrial core team also comprises Jena Optronik (Germany), Boostec (France), Sener and GMV (Spain).

Sentinel-2 is intended to image the Earth’s landmasses from its orbit for at least 7.25 years. In addition, its on-board resources will be designed so that the mission can be prolonged by an extra five years. From 2012 onwards, the 1.1-metric-ton satellite will circle the Earth in a sun-synchronous, polar orbit at an altitude of 786 kilometres, fully covering the planet’s landmasses in just ten days. Its multi-spectral instrument (MSI) will generate optical images in 13 spectral channels in the visible and short-wave infrared range down to a resolution of 10 metres with an image width of 290 kilometres

In the future it is planned to extend the overall Sentinel-2 system by a second satellite, so that by operating the two satellites simultaneously, it will be possible to cover the planet’s landmass every five days.

About GMESGMES

(Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) is an EU led initiative, while the GMES Space Component is led by ESA. GMES aims to continuously monitor the Earth’s system using ground and space-based sensors. Its objective is to provide politicians and experts with up-to-date information to support their wide-ranging decisions concerning the environment, the economy, traffic and security.

The aim is to integrate Europe’s different activities in geosciences and Earth observation, using existing ground- and satellite-based systems and their data as efficiently as possible, and setting up sustainable operational systems specially tailored to this range of tasks. The Sentinel satellite series will cover the dedicated space segment of the GMES programme in Europe.

Astrium, through its subsidiary, Infoterra, also coordinates European consortia for two of the three main areas of GMES - knowledge of land use and evolution trends on the one hand and risks and crisis management on the other.

Astrium in Friedrichshafen is also making a key contribution to the Sentinel-1 radar satellite by providing its C-band radar instrument.

About Astrium

Astrium, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, is dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems and services. In 2007, Astrium had a turnover of €3.5 billion and 12,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. Its three main areas of activity are Astrium Space Transportation for launchers and orbital infrastructure, and Astrium Satellites for spacecraft and ground segment, and its wholly owned subsidiary Astrium Services for the development and delivery of satellite services.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2007, EADS generated revenues of €39.1 billion and employed a workforce of more than 116, 000.
Contacts for the media

Henri de Grossouvre
Head of Media
Tel.: +33 (0) 1 77 75 80 36

Matthieu Duvelleroy
EADS Astrium (FR)
Tel.: +33 (0) 1 77 75 80 32

Jeremy Close
EADS Astrium (UK)
Tel.: +44 (0)1438 77 38 72

Robert Klarner
EADS Astrium (GER)
Tel.: +49 (0) 89 607 29821

Francisco Lechón
EADS Astrium (ESP)
Tel.: +34 (0) 91 586 37 41

www.astrium.eads.net