The Space Alliance, formed by Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67 percent, Leonardo 33 percent) and Telespazio (Leonardo 67 percent, Thales 33 percent), have signed a partnership with the U.S.-based company Spaceflight Industries.

The following elements of this partnership include...

• A minority investment in Spaceflight Industries, which through its BlackSky business, has developed a geospatial platform and plans to build and operate a constellation of 60 small high-resolution observation satellites featuring very short revisit times
• The creation of an industrial Joint Venture in the United States between Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries specialized in the production of smallsats
• The implementation of a Joint Cooperation and Marketing Agreement between Telespazio and BlackSky enhancing their respective product and analytics portfolios on the market

Jean-Loïc Galle

The Earth Observation (EO) market is undergoing constant changes, with an increasing focus on requirements that combine high resolution and much shorter revisit times. Thales Alenia Space, Spaceflight Industries and Telespazio are combining their strengths to offer a constellation of small satellites that will be deployed in conjunction with a smart ground segment to offer services at very competitive prices by calling on massive and automated data/image processing. The result is a disruptive product, designed not only for traditional customers in the commercial observation market, but also to support the development of new vertical B2B (Business to Business) markets, such as mining, energy, transport, finance, agriculture, industry and environment, and even B2C (Business to Customer). The agreement will be finalized pending all required regulatory authorizations

Luigi Pasquali

Jean-Loïc Galle, President and CEO of Thales Alenia Space, said this partnership reflects the ‘new space’ transformation strategy being implemented by Thales Alenia Space, with the ultimate aim of becoming a major manufacturer of small observation satellites constellations featuring short revisit times, both in Europe and the United States.

Jason Andrews

Luigi Pasquali, CEO of Telespazio, added that this joint cooperation and marketing agreement gives Telespazio and BlackSky a strong market boost to access leading markets in the geo-information domain with highly innovative products.

Jason Andrews, Chairman and CEO of Spaceflight Industries, noted that this partnership with two leaders in the European space industry accelerates the BlackSky business plan by funding their constellation, minimizing the company's constellation production risk and reduces the company's time to market within key market segments,.