Thales Alenia Space to build new space optics facility 

 

December 9, 2014

 

Thales Alenia Space announced the start of construction of a new building at its site in Cannes to be used for the integration and testing of high-resolution optical observation instruments. This exceptional facility will join the company's current facilities for spaceborne optical observation programs, and will support the growth of export sales for high-resolution observation systems.

 

The new optics building is the last step in the Odyssée program, which started in 2008 and was designed to expand the company's Cannes site using adjacent land provided by the city of Cannes.

 

The new optics building will offer 1,250 square meters of floorspace (13,500 sq ft) and measure 55 meters long by 40 meters wide by 16 meters high (180x131x52 ft). It is a modular building, with up to four integration areas that can handle four programs at the same time. It will also include 700 square meters of clean rooms (7,560 sq ft), including 250 square meters (2,700 sq ft) of Class 100 space for the optics bench.

 

Construction started in mid-October with the foundations, and the building will be handed over to Thales Alenia Space in the summer of 2015.

 

For Thales Alenia Space, this new building dedicated to high-resolution optics represents a major economic and strategic challenge. It will help the company efficiently address the changing requirements of a booming global market, as shown by the Falcon Eye contract for the United Arab Emirates, which entered into force today.