Not every company is as fortunate as Thales Alenia Space, which won five contracts for geostationary communications satellites out of a total of 26 ordered in 2008, a market share of 23 percent, plus contracts for four communications payloads, one observation satellite and the low Earth orbit constellation for O3b Networks, comprising 16 satellites. Listed below are the accomplishments that the company enjoyed this past year.
Then there were communications: new customers and an unrivaled position in constellations
- Increased market share by winning new customers: Nilesat as prime contractor (Egypt), plus EuropaSat for Inmarsat (UK).
- Contracts signed for five geostationary satellites: W3B for Eutelsat, Koreasat 6 for Korea Telecom (in partnership with Orbital), Nilesat 201 for Nilesat, EuropaSat for Inmarsat, RascomQaf-1R for RascomStar-QAF.
- Payloads: Thales Alenia Space signed two contracts for Israeli operator Spacecom, Amos-4 with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Amos-5 in partnership with ISS-Reshetnev (formerly NPO-PM) and some others.
- Contract for the Amos-4 ground segment.
- Contract for the O3b low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation for O3b Networks, designed to provide Internet services to three billion people around the world who do not yet enjoy access.
- A major milestone with the start of assembly and testing of second-generation satellites for the Globalstar constellation and the confirmation that we are on track to meet the aggressive timetable to deploy Globalstar’s next-generation network.
- Thales Alenia Space is also one of two companies chosen to submit a proposal to Iridium for its “NEXT” constellation, confirming its unrivaled credibility in the satellite constellation market.
- Contract for the Sentinel-3 satellite in Europe’s GMES program.
- Successful launch of Jason-2 for French space agency CNES, and operational commissioning of the satellite, confirming the company’s excellence in operational oceanography.
- Start of the detailed design phase for the optical space segment in Musis (successor to Helios 2), under the auspices of CNES. Thales Alenia Space is producing the optical payload.
- Contract for the Redsat communications payload on the AG1 smallsat developed by Hispasat as part of ESA’s Artes 11 program.
- Contract with Sener to supply the electronics for the optical instrument on the Spanish satellite Ingenio, developed by ESA and CDTI.
- Operational commissioning of the COSMO-SkyMed constellation, with the launch of the third satellite in this series.
- Continued work on the Galileo program: launch of the Giove-B satellite, transfer of activities from the ESNI consortium to Thales Alenia Space, finalization of the contract for the power subsystem, and further progress on the IOV phase.
- Major role in the International Space Station: launch of the Columbus laboratory in February, the Jules Verne ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) in March, and a fourth mission for the Leonardo MPLM (Multi-purpose Pressurized Logistic Module).
- Export: Thales Alenia Space will supply the Earth observation satellite Gokturk equipped with a high-resolution optical radar sensor in the frame of the Space Alliance and as part of the global Telespazio contract.
- Five communications satellites: Star One C2, Turksat 3A, Chinasat 9, AMC-21, Ciel-2
- Two observation satellites: Jason-2, COSMO-SkyMed 3
- Navigation satellite: Giove-B
- Three International Space Station modules: ATV, Columbus, MPLM
- Two radar observation payloads: SAR-Lupe 4 & 5
- Three communications payloads: AM33, Amos-3, BADR-6
