Space to Explore

Thales Alenia Space has a long track record aboard some of the most extraordinary international missions exploring the solar system.

From the Sun to Saturn, and from Mercury to Venus, Jupiter and Mars, our solutions have been on every space odyssey seeking to unveil the universe’s most closely guarded secrets, in the process gathering enough data to keep scientists busy for decades. We have also embarked on missions to explore asteroids and comets, one of the most spectacular being Cassini-Huygens, the only European probe ever to land on Saturn’s moon Titan, in 2005. Thales Alenia Space built Huygens and the high-gain antenna, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and radiofrequency (RF) subsystem for the Cassini orbiter.

As a matter of fact, the mission was launched in 1997 and the Huygens descent module would only set down on Saturn in 2005 after an interplanetary voyage of more than seven years. We also built the ExoMars mission’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) circling the red planet since 2016, where it is serving as a communications relay between the rovers on the surface and Earth, and helping to analyze gases in Mars’ atmosphere, in particular methane. Now, with NASA’s future Artemis mission, all eyes are on the Moon—but more of that later.

From the outset, we have been a top-tier player on the ISS, supplying most of its pressurized habitable volume. We built Nodes 2 and 3, the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), the Multipurpose Logistics Modules (MPLM), the structure of the Columbus laboratory and the Cupola, famous the world over as the viewing gallery where astronauts have taken such spectacular pictures of our planet from the station’s 400-kilometer orbital perch. This high-tech marvel built in Turin, with its seven windows, is our astronaut friends’ favorite observation post on the ISS. We have also acquired significant expertise in pressurized cargo modules for the ATV and Cygnus resupply vehicles. Cygnus makes two trips to the station a year, ferrying food, water, spares and science experiments to the ISS crew. This unique expertise in Europe led the U.S. firm NanoRacks to select Thales Alenia Space to build the pressurized structure of its commercial module berthed to one of the ports of the station’s Tranquility module (Node 3).

The last crewed mission to Earth’s natural satellite reaches back to Apollo 17 in 1972. We have waited more than 50 years for the Moon to become a priority for space exploration once again. Why such a return to favor? In 2008, we discovered water on the Moon. There is also clear evidence of oxygen and hydrogen in lunar ice, which could be used for example to produce rocket fuel. The Moon’s subsurface also contains energy resources like helium 3.

The Moon is set to serve as a staging post and stepping stone for crewed deep-space missions, with Mars the next step on our journey. NASA has developed the Orion capsule with precisely these kinds of missions in mind. Thales Alenia Space is supplying the thermomechanical systems for the European service module. Working with Avio, we will also be building ESA’s Space Rider reusable autonomous space transportation system, which draws on the heritage of the IXV demonstrator.