Thales Alenia Space wins European Commission contracts to support ESA and GSA for Galileo system engineering and operational support services
December 15, 2016
Thales Alenia Space has signed two new contracts, with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European GNSS Agency, GSA, respectively covering engineering services for the development of Galileo infrastructure and support for the beginning of operational services from this global navigation system. The contracts signed today are worth a total of 180 million euros and cover work during the period 2017-2020.
The engineering contract concerning Galileo satellites exploitation phase will support the development of Galileo’s infrastructure to provide initial services starting in 2017 and to make it fully operational by the end of 2020. Based on this contract, Thales Alenia Space Italy will carry out all design, safety, integration, inspection and in-orbit validation operations in support of ESA, while also supporting GSA for the validation and provision of services starting in 2017.
"This contract, along with the one we already won in 2009, further confirms Thales Alenia Space’s leadership in the design of integrated space systems,” said Donato Amoroso, CEO of Thales Alenia Space Italy. “Our capabilities have already been demonstrated during the current FOC phase of the Galileo program, which will validate and qualify Europe’s own navigation system to kick off initial service.”
Thales Alenia Space is also in charge of the design and development of the system ground segment, along with the production of some of its most important parts (tracking and time generation receivers), and significant parts of the space segment (antennas and onboard signal generators), to be produced and integrated at the company’s Rome and L’Aquila plants.
Since 1997, Thales Alenia Space has been a key contributor to European global navigation projects, and is the prime contractor on EGNOS ((European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System) as well as deeply involved in Galileo.
