Thales and Telespazio win contract

The contract, signed by Thales Alenia Space as the lead company in a temporary consortium (RTI), is the first within the scope of the Space Economy initiative, providing for both private and government participation. It is defined in a collaboration agreement between the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry and 12 Italian regions (Abruzzi, Basilicata, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Lombardy, Piedmont, Apulia, Sardinia, Tuscany, Umbria, Aosta Valley and the autonomous province of Trento), to foster the development and competitiveness of the Italian space industry and provide high-performance services for both the government and commercial markets, a press release states. The Ital-GovSatCom program was originally Italy’s contribution to a European initiative called GovSatCom. Designed to give Italy a strong position in the strategic sector of governmental communications, its aim is to develop and operate an innovative and competitive satellite system providing secure, robust and reliable communication services for several government applications, including civil security, defense, humanitarian aid, telemedicine and maritime surveillance. The satellite will be compatible with launches by vehicles such as the Vega light launcher, built by AVIO. The complete satellite system, including the ground segment and related applications, calls on critical technologies from major Italian space industry players Thales Alenia Space, Telespazio, Leonardo, SITAEL and Space Engineering, along with a number of innovative small and medium-size enterprises (SME). “The Space Alliance’s involvement in this first contract as part of the Space Economy initiative clearly reflects the Italian Space Agency’s trust in our experience and capabilities, especially our proven ability to deliver state-of-the-art satellites,” said Donato Amoroso, CEO of Thales Alenia Space in Italy, and Luigi Pasquali, CEO of Telespazio, in a joint statement. “The contract signed today marks a crucial and strategic cooperation opportunity between ASI and the Italian space industry. It also confirms the new trend in space business, as well as the transformational Space Economy strategy that Thales Alenia Space has already implemented with the aim of becoming the leading manufacturer of innovative, competitive, modular and multipurpose satellites and the top supplier of secure services, delivering high added-value and competitive solutions to both the institutional and commercial markets.”