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Thales Alenia Space shipped the second ComSatBw satellite to Kourou

18 February 2010

Cannes, February 18, 2010 - Thales Alenia Space announced today that it has shipped to the Kourou spaceport the second ComSatBw satellite, which will be launched on March 24 by an Ariane 5 ECA. As satellite prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space designed, built, integrated, tested and delivered both ComSatBw satellites on behalf of EADS Astrium, the space segment prime contractor.

ComSatBw military communications satellites deliver key services for the German armed forces. They provide a secure broadband network guaranteeing uninterrupted communications between the government, military authorities and armed forces deployed anywhere in the world.

ComSatBw multimission geostationary satellites are based on the Thales Alenia Space Spacebus 3000B2 platform, and carry payloads comprising SHF (Super-High-Frequency), and UHF transponders (Ultra-High-Frequency), provided by EADS Astrium. Weighing about 2,500 kg at launch, ComSatBw satellites offer 3.5 kW of power and has a design life estimated at 15 years.

As strong positioning in the Defence area
Thales Alenia Space is a major player in space-based defence systems, offering communications, observation, navigation and early warning systems, with experience as prime contractor for the French Syracuse “milsatcom” system, along with the Italian SICRAL and COSMO-SkyMed systems. The company has built the Koreasat-5 (South Korea) and
Star One C1 and C2 (Brazil) communications satellites, as well as instruments for a number of observation satellites, including Helios 2 and Pleiades in France, SAR-Lupe in Germany and Kompsat 5 in South Korea. Thales Alenia Space also built the satellites for France’s Spirale early warning demonstration system.

Recently, Thales Alenia Space signed a contract with the French and Italian space agencies, CNES and ASI, to develop, construct, test and deliver in orbit a broadband civil and military telecommunications satellite: Athena-Fidus.

Thales Alenia Space offers unrivaled expertise to meet evolving defence and security requirements, as reflected in the company’s selection on new French programmes. For example, Thales Alenia Space was chosen to develop the optical instrument for CSO, successor to the Helios 2 programme and actively prepares the operational CERES spaceborne intelligence programme. At the same time, Thales Alenia Space is a pivotal player in current analyses on the possibility of outsourcing responsibility for French military space communications systems Syracuse, built and already operated by the company. The same approach will probably be applied to the operational early warning system that France plans to develop, as well as to the Italian second-generation observation system and the European intelligence system, MUSIS.

About Thales Alenia Space
The 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 achieved revenues of Euro 2 billion in 2008 and has a total of 7,200 employees located in 11 industrial sites in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium.
www.thalesaleniaspace.com

Thales Alenia Space Press Contacts
Florence Pontieux - Tel: +33 (0)1 57 77 91 26
florence.pontieux@thalesaleniaspace.com

Sandrine Bielecki - Tel: +33 (0)4 92 92 70 94
sandrine.bielecki@thalesaleniaspace.com