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New Space Domain Awareness Services for European Governments Provided by a NorthStar and Telespazio Partnership

September 14, 2022

NorthStar Earth & Space (NorthStar) and Telespazio, a joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%), announced today at the World Satellite Business Week conference in Paris that they have entered into a Distribution and Partnership Agreement (D&PA) to strengthen cooperation on delivering solutions to greatly enhance European Space Domain Awareness initiatives.

Under the agreement, Telespazio will serve as NorthStar’s exclusive distributor and value-added solutions provider for European Ministries of Defence, Governments, Agencies and Institutions, reinforcing its role as a trusted operator and space services provider for the most demanding government customers.

“NorthStar is committed to the peaceful and sustainable use of space. We deliver valuable information that enhances detection and precision tracking of space objects in LEO, MEO & GEO to support greater safety and security ofspace operations and encourage responsible behaviour in orbit. Telespazio is a global space leader that has an exceptional international reach and an unmatched track record with European entities,” said Stewart Bain, CEO and Co-Founder of NorthStar.

In 2023, NorthStar will launch the first commercial space-based system fully dedicated to Space Situational Awareness (SSA). NorthStar’s unique “always on” constellation simultaneously monitors all near-Earth orbit regimes to improve awareness and precision tracking of resident space objects.

Telespazio will integrate NorthStar’s space-based suite of solutions into its overall Space Domain Awareness value proposition to government clients as a local trusted partner, based on decades of consolidated expertise in delivering satellite communications, Geo information, applications, security and military space systems. NorthStar’s superior information services, combined with Telespazio’s secure infrastructure and added value services, will deliver customized, high performance end-to-end solutions to clients.

“NorthStar’s space-based collection and suite of derived SSA information services will deliver a unique “always on” 3D view of the entire space environment. NorthStar’s unprecedented data quality and fast  revisit enable Telespazio to refine our ability to detect, track, predict, identify and characterize space objects and debris which is critical to address sophisticated market requirements, for example in Defence applications”, said Luigi Pasquali, CEO of Telespazio.

Telespazio will leverage NorthStar’s enhanced SSA capabilities to serve customers across Europe via its HQ in Italy as well as subsidiary companies in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, and Romania.

Telespazio, as part of the Space Alliance between Leonardo and Thales, invested in NorthStar’s initial funding round and supported the de-risking and study phase of NorthStar’s space-based constellation.

This agreement confirms the cooperation between the companies and paves the way for accelerated future success.