The Space Alliance, formed by Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67%, Leonardo 33%) and Telespazio (Leonardo 67%, Thales 33%) has today signed a partnership agreement with the US company Spaceflight Industries which provides for:
- the acquisition of a minority stake in Spaceflight Industries, a US company that intends to build and manage - through its BlackSky business - a constellation of 60 small earth observation satellites that will guarantee very short revisit times on every point of the planet;
- the establishment in the United States of an industrial joint venture between Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries specialized in the construction of small satellites;
- the implementation of a commercial cooperation agreement between Telespazio and BlackSky that allows the improvement of the respective products and services on the market.
"This agreement reflects the transformation strategy of the 'new space' implemented by Thales Alenia Space, both in Europe and in the United States, with the ultimate goal of becoming the main producer of constellations of small observation satellites with short review times"- said Jean-Loïc Galle, President and CEO of Thales Alenia Space.
"The collaboration between the two companies will be able to ensure Telespazio and BlackSky a strong push to access leading markets in the geoinformation sector, with a range of highly innovative products and services", Added Luigi Pasquali, Managing Director of Telespazio.
"This partnership with two leaders of the European space industry will allow us to accelerate BlackSky's business plan, financing our constellation, minimizing production risks and anticipating the entry of our offer into key market segments"Said Jason Andrews, President and CEO of Spaceflight Industries.
The Earth Observation market is subject to constant changes, with increasing attention to the requirements that combine synergistically high resolution with ever smaller revisit times. Thales Alenia Space, Spaceflight Industries and Telespazio today combine their efforts to create a constellation of mini satellites that will be used, together with a "smart" land segment, to offer services at competitive prices thanks to the automated processing of data and images. The result will be an innovative product, designed not only for traditional customers in the earth observation market, but also to support the development of new vertical B2B markets: mining, energy, transport, finance, agriculture, industry and the environment up to B2C.
The agreement will be finalized to receive the necessary authorizations.
