Thales Alenia Space will be at the 40th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, April 7–10, to showcase its latest solutions for Earth observation and space exploration.

Space to explore

An upcoming space station in orbit around the Moon

The aim of manned space exploration is to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon and test the technologies and infrastructure needed for future missions to Mars and beyond.
After manufacturing almost 50% of the International Space Station, Thales Alenia Space is playing a major role in this new era of sciences, exploration, space transport systems and orbital infrastructures. The company is involved in the Lunar Gateway space station, which will serve as a staging point between the Earth and Moon. This 40-metric-ton cislunar station will enable astronauts to conduct long-duration missions to the Moon.

EMIRATES AIRLOCK MODULE © Thales Alenia Space/Briot

Thales Alenia Space is partnering with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center to design and develop of the Emirates Airlock module. This module will serve as a decompression chamber for deploying scientific equipment and preparing astronauts for extravehicular activities.

HALO Clean Room © Thales Alenia Space

End of March, HALO’s pressurized module compartment was finalized and shipped from our cleanrooms in Turin, Italy, to Northrop Grumman’s Gilbert facility in Arizona.

HALO © Thales Alenia Space

A first crewed lunar base

Multi-Purpose Habitat module © Thales Alenia Space/Briot

Exploration isn’t limited to lunar orbit. Thales Alenia Space is also involved in building the first permanent base on the Moon. In 2023, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) chose our company to supply the Multi-Purpose Habitat module, the first permanent outpost on the lunar surface, which will enable astronauts to live and work safely in a comfortable environment.
Featuring a smart architecture promoting mobility and energy autonomy, the MPH module will ensure the supply of water, energy and vital resources, while relying on advanced local production and recycling systems. This infrastructure is a crucial step toward establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon.

Europe’s versatile lunar lander for cargo transport

Argonaut © Thales Alenia Space/Briot

Flying astronauts to the Moon is one challenge, but we also need to ferry materials and science equipment to the lunar surface. Thales Alenia Space recently won a major contract with ESA to develop the Argonaut lunar descent module, which will deliver cargo to the surface. This versatile, autonomous lunar lander is designed to carry cargo, vehicles and other payloads, as well as science missions.
Argonaut’s first flight, planned for 2030, will deliver navigation and telecommunication payloads, an energy production and storage system and equipment to enable European companies to explore the lunar south pole region.

From ISS to the space stations of the future

Thales Alenia Space also continues to provide logistics for crewed missions, supplying the pressurized cargo modules (PCMs) for Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft. Twice a year, these modules supply the International Space Station with food, water, spares, science experiments and equipment.
Our company is also working on the first three modules of Axiom Space’s future commercial space station.

Moonlight lunar communication and navigation network

Moonlight © Thales Alenia Space/Briot

For the Moon to become an effective forward base for space exploration, it must first have a reliable and secure navigation and telecommunication infrastructure. This is the goal of the Moonlight program led by ESA. Thales Alenia Space is contributing to this program by developing the space segment of the satellite navigation system. This lunar network will enable real-time communication between Earth and human or robotic missions on the surface, continuous connectivity and precise navigation for rovers and astronauts.

Red Planet in focus

ExoMars © Thales Alenia Space

In the next decade, scientists will be able to answer the existential question David Bowie asked in the song from his 1971 album Hunky Dory: Is there life on Mars? We might finally have the proof with the ExoMars 2028 mission. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) built by Thales Alenia Space is currently orbiting in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. The second mission, comprising a transfer module, descent module and landing platform carrying the rover, will search for traces of past or present life beneath the Martian surface. This quest will be entrusted to the Rosalind Franklin rover, which will carry the Analytical Laboratory Drawer (ALD), a compact laboratory capable of in-situ analysis of samples collected by a drill built by Leonardo. This drill will probe the surface of Mars to a depth of two meters to detect the presence of any organic contaminants, which could be considered as “living matter”.

Euclid: a third of the sky to examine

Euclid © Thales Alenia Space

Thales Alenia Space has contributed to many iconic solar system exploration missions, including Cassini-Huygens (Saturn), BepiColombo (Mercury), ExoMars and Euclid, to name just a few. By examining billions of galaxies over a timescale of more than 10 billion light years — more than a third of the sky — the Euclid space telescope will lift the veil on the mysteries of the cosmos. This science mission is studying dark energy and matter to better understand the origin of the Universe’s expansion and the reasons for its acceleration. More recently, Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with the European Space Agency to build the EnVision spacecraft that will unveil Venus’ deepest mysteries. The EnVision mission will provide a holistic view of the planet, from its inner core to the upper atmosphere, in order to determine how and why Venus and Earth evolved so differently.

Space to observe and protect

In recent decades, Earth observation satellites for oceanography, weather forecasting and environmental monitoring have been our vital eyes in the sky for all humanity. The data they provide for the science community is delivering deeper insights into the climate phenomena governing our planet and helping mitigate natural disaster risks.

Copernicus: serving Europe’s environmental monitoring

Copernicus © Thales Alenia Space

The European Commission’s Copernicus environmental monitoring program is the most ambitious of its kind in the world, with 12 families of Sentinel satellites observing the Earth and its topography, polar regions, seas, lakes and oceans. Copernicus also includes payloads for climatology and measuring human-induced CO2 emissions as well as new applications for protecting biodiversity and fostering sustainable farming. A program of this scale gives Europe the means to better anticipate the effects of climate change and help preserve and protect our planet. The satellites and ground segments are built for ESA by European prime contractors. Thales Alenia Space is a major contributor to 11 of the program’s 12 missions.

In December, the Sentinel-1C Earth observation satellite was successfully launched by Arianespace. Later this year, it will be joined in orbit by Sentinel-1D, which is currently in our cleanrooms in Cannes, France. Also this year, we’ll deliver the payload for the first CO2M satellite to OHB. The task of the CO2M mission is to analyze human-induced CO2. In January 2025, ESA placed an order with OHB for a third satellite, the payload for which, like the first two, will be built by Thales Alenia Space.

Meteorology 3.0 with Meteosat Third Generation

MTG-I1 © Mathieu Persan

Thales Alenia Space is prime contractor for Meteosat Third Generation (MTG). The program will comprise six satellites — four imaging satellites and two atmospheric sounding models — and will revolutionize meteorology and improve forecasting accuracy.

MTG-I1 was launched in 2022 and delivered its first images of the Earth in 2023, surpassing the performance of previous generations. The imaging satellites carry lightning detectors. The sounding models are designed to map the atmosphere in 3D.

The first atmospheric sounder (MTG-S1), built by OHB, will be launched this year. Once all six MTGs are flying, EUMETSAT, Europe’s meteorological satellite agency, will offer the world’s most sophisticated weather forecasting services.

SWOT: mapping the world’s surface waters

SWOT © Thales Alenia Space/ ImagIN

Thales Alenia Space is also a global leader in space altimetry. Our radar altimeters are flying on the world’s most important oceanography satellites. The most recently launched is the French-American SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite, which has been operating since 2023 and is revolutionizing oceanography and continental hydrology. The satellite for this joint program by NASA and the French Space Agency (CNES) was built by Thales Alenia Space with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This high-tech marvel will survey 90% of Earth’s surface waters — lakes, rivers, reservoirs and oceans.

When SWOT’s mission is over, the satellite will perform a controlled reentry into the atmosphere to avoid generating space debris, reflecting a strong commitment to the sustainable use of space.

Observation constellations for near real-time monitoring

Many countries use our space systems to gather high-precision imagery. These systems draw on our unrivalled expertise in high and very-high-resolution (HR/VHR) optical and radar instruments.
Thales Alenia Space has world-class expertise in very high-performance optical and radar observation systems. For example, we’ve built two generations of COSMO-SkyMed radar satellites for ASI and the Italian Ministry of Defense. Our company is also the exclusive supplier of VHR optical instruments for French intelligence satellites, including the optical payloads on Helios, Pleiades and CSO (optical space component).

IRIDE© Thales Alenia Space

The resurgence of high-intensity conflicts calls for new thinking on the use of space-based observation assets, like the combination of very high-performance optical and radar systems. Intelligence services will also rely on new technologies like high-revisit-rate optical (BlackSky) and/or radar (IRIDE) constellations.
While India is planning to have a high-revisit constellation of optical observation satellites with the NIBE project, Italy is deploying an Earth observation constellation with the IRIDE program. Thales Alenia Space will supply 13 satellites for the IRIDE constellation: 12 SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellites and a high-precision optical satellite.

IRIDE is a pioneering Earth observation program and will use a range of remote sensing instruments and technologies, from microwave radar imaging to optical sensors operating across various spatial resolutions and frequency bands. Supported by Italy's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) and managed by the European Space Agency in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency, this program will offer unrivalled opportunities for environmental monitoring, resource management and sustainability.

ALL-IN-ONE © Thales Alenia Space/Briot

Thales Alenia Space offers as well the ALL-IN-ONE Earth observation solution, which combines the best of our optical and radar smallsats to ensure high revisit frequency and an ideal monitoring capability for near real-time surveillance, day and night and in all weather conditions