• These unique facilities in Spain – with more than 600 m2 clean area and 20-meter height – will allow to expand the activities of the company in the domain of integration and testing of large space systems. The new facilities add-up to the existing 2000 m2 clean area devoted to manufacturing and integration of space equipment and large subsystems.

• The SPAINSAT NG satellite payloads will be integrated in this new clean room, that will be ready in autumn 2020 and will pave the way for new services for space agencies and satellite operators.

Madrid, October 16, 2019 – The construction of the new clean room(1) that Thales Alenia Space, Joint Venture between Thales (67 %) and Leonardo (33 %) is setting up in Spain has already started. This cutting-edge facility will become a reference for the integration and test of large space systems in Spain.

The construction works will span for a little less than a year. Once finished, the company will have the capacity to pursue high complexity activities such as the integration of the telecommunication payloads for Spain’s next generation governmental satellites SPAINSAT NG and other large systems in the field of Earth observation and science instruments.

This investment will result into a unique, cutting-edge facility in Spain. The new clean room will add more than 600 m2 clean area to the existing 2000 m2. With a free height of 12.5 meters in the inside, the facility will be equipped with bridge cranes with lifting capacity up to 12 tons each, prepared for the integration of payloads and instruments of large dimensions for all type of space missions, spanning telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation and science.

Eduardo Bellido, CEO of Thales Alenia Space in Spain said: “With these new capacities we are matching Europe’s space powers and we will be ready to pursue high level integration activities in Spain. We are currently leading the development of the telecommunication payloads for the SPAINSAT NG satellites in Spain, a state-of-the-art program in space technology, with these payloads to be integrated in the new clean room.” Bellido added: “This great investment shows the strong commitment of Thales Alenia Space in the development of high added value space activities in Spain.”

Centre of Excellence in Spain

In 30 years of activity, Thales Alenia Space in Spain has participated already in 600 satellites, space vehicles and probes for space agencies and satellite operators all over the world, having built in its facilities in Madrid over 4000 equipment that feature over 200 million hours of operation in orbit.

Specialized in the development of radiofrequency and digital electronics equipment, the company is a reference in Europe in satellite communication subsystems for all type of space missions and orbits, spanning Earth observation in low Earth orbit (LEO), meteorology missions in geostationary orbit (GEO) and science missions to the Moon and in orbit around the L2 Sun-Earth Lagrangian point at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth. Over the last years it has delivered 30 large communication subsystems for several satellites, including Sentinel 1, 2 and 3, Ingenio, Meteosat Third Generation, GEO-KOMPSAT-2 and Euclid.

Thales Alenia Space site in Madrid is also a centre of excellence in optical Earth observation instruments. It is responsible for the development of the electronics for instruments such as OLCI (Sentinel 3), Ingenio and up to 12 high resolution optical satellites. Furthermore, it develops the video and data processing units for the two main instruments of Meteosat Third Generation, key to guarantee the superior image quality of both instruments.

The company is currently leading in Spain the study of the Land Surface Temperature Monitoring instrument (LSTM) for the expansion of the European environmental monitoring program Copernicus, a mission designed to provide seamless, accurate and easy to access information in support of agriculture and water resources management services, key to better addressing the nutritional needs of the world’s population over the next few decades.

(1) Clean rooms are areas designed and equipped to operate in very low contamination conditions and under stable temperature, air pressure and humidity conditions. They have a strict control of the environmental parameters (humidity, temperature, air pressure, dust particles suspended in the air) as well as stringent access and dressing restrictions. Class ISO 8 (or class 100,000), needed for the manufacturing and assembly of on-board satellite electronics and systems, guarantees that the number of particles >0.5 microns is below 3.5 million per cubic meter, or equivalently, 100,000 particles per cubic feet.

Photo copyright ©Thales Alenia Space

About Thales Alenia Space
Drawing on over 40 years of experience and a unique combination of skills, expertise and cultures, Thales Alenia Space delivers cost-effective solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Governments and private industry alike count on Thales Alenia Space to design satellite-based systems that provide anytime, anywhere connections and positioning, monitor our planet, enhance management of its resources, and explore our Solar System and beyond. Thales Alenia Space sees space as a new horizon, helping to build a better, more sustainable life on Earth. A joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent companies’ Space Alliance, which offers a complete range of services. Thales Alenia Space posted consolidated revenues of about 2.5 billion euros in 2018 and has around 8,000 employees in nine countries. www.thalesaleniaspace.com

Thales Alenia Space – Press Contacts:

Sandrine Bielecki
Tel: +33 (0)4 92 92 70 94
sandrine.bielecki@thalesaleniaspace.com

Cinzia Marcanio
Tel: +39 06 41512685
cinzia.marcanio@thalesaleniaspace.com

About Thales Alenia Space in Spain
Thales Alenia Space is well represented in Spain and is the country’s leading space company in the space segment and export markets, with 30 years of experience in the design, development and sale of advanced space systems and equipment. It has contributed to 600 satellites, space probes and vehicles used in telecommunications, Earth observation, science, exploration, navigation and orbital infrastructure missions. Thales Alenia Space in Spain offers a wide range of solutions spanning the design and integration of payloads and subsystems for telecommunications, data transmission and TT&C (tracking, telemetry and command), optical observation instruments, radiofrequency equipment, data processing and digital electronics, and network management systems for the ground segment.