Thales Alenia Space Proposals for the Copernicus Project Selected by ESA

July 03, 2020

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Thales Alenia Space, a Joint Venture between Thales (67 %) and Leonardo (33 %), has recently been selected  by the European Space Agency (ESA) in coordination and with the agreement of the European Commission, for major Copernicus missions. Copernicus is the core satellite Earth observation program of the European Commission and the European Space Agency ESA. It provides Earth observation data for environmental protection, climate monitoring, natural disaster assessment and other social tasks.

Thales Alenia Space will serve as prime contractor for the following missions:

• Thales Alenia Space France for CHIME (Hyperspectral Imaging mission) with OHB system and Leonardo as main subcontractors
• Thales Alenia Space Italia for CIMR (Passive Microwave Imaging Mission) with OHB system and OHB Italia as subcontractors
• Thales Alenia Space Italia for ROSE L (L-band SAR Mission) with Airbus Defence & Space Germany as subcontractor.

Thales Alenia Space will also be responsible for the payload on two further missions:

• Thales Alenia Space France for CO2M instrument (the CO2 Monitoring Mission) to measure global anthropogenic CO2 emissions and thus play a key role in studying the causes of climate change and monitoring it, with OHB system as prime contractor
• Thales Alenia Space France for the CRISTAL (Polar Ice and Snow Topographic Mission) altimeter with Airbus Defence & Space Germany as prime contractor

The order volume resulting from the recent bid decisions is expected to be around EUR 1.8 billion. Final contract negotiations will start shortly and contract signings are expected in the coming weeks.

Hervé Derrey, CEO of Thales Alenia Space declared: “I really want to warmly thank ESA for the trust they put in our company to be on-board of five of the six new Copernicus missions, driving three of them as prime contractor. These successes are reflecting the capacity of Thales Alenia Space to address complex Earth Observation missions in various configurations including optical and radar relevant solutions. I also would like to warmly thank the European Commission, the member states, and all national space agencies in particular CNES and ASI for their strong support”.

Source : Thales