Thales Alenia Space, an indispensable actor in the service of observation, exploration and defense

(To Alessandro Rugolo)
17/08/16

The July 12 Thales Alenia Space, a joint-venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), during a ceremony held at the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) announces the start of the construction phase of four projects: the SWOT satellite (Surface Water and Ocean Topography), of the heart of the KaRIN wide-coverage altimeter (Ka-band Interferometer Radar), highly innovative equipment, as well as the Poséidon 3C altimeter.

The contract for the SWOT demonstration oceanographic program for new applications, in continuity with the operational missions Jason 1-2-3, signed last January 6 2015, promises to be the bearer of unprecedented technological innovations in the field of altimetry.

The program, created in collaboration with the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, US laboratory of the California Institute of Technology), on behalf of the French space agencies (CNES) and American (NASA), SWOT is intended for the study of the topography of oceans and surface continental waters.

The achievement of this important step of the SWOT program reflects the important involvement, success and dynamism of Thales Alenia Space not only in the programs dedicated to Earth observation but also in those, more and more current, of the exploration of the universe. Since the beginning of the 2016 four launches have been made in four months from four different sites that have seen the involvement of "made in Thales Alenia Space" projects: the oceanographic satellite Jason 3 (the 17 January from the Vandenberg base in California), the satellite Sentinel 3A dedicated to the environment (the 16 February from Plesetsk in Russia), the probe Exomars destined for the red planet (the 14 March from Baikonour in Kazakhstan) and finally the Sentinel 1B, environmental satellite (the 25 April from Kourou in Guyana).

The experience of Thales Alenia Space in the field of terrestrial observation simultaneously covers meteorological missions (all generations of satellites) Meteosat since more than 30 years), of climatology (Calypso has just celebrated its 10 years of operational life in orbit), of altimetry (the altimeter Poseidon is in this field a world reference), but also high-resolution optical observation missions.

Thales Alenia Space has also put the new solution on the market Earth Observer Optical which allows unprecedented access to the production and management of high resolution images.

It should be noted that the technology developed in this field by Thales Alenia Space has made it possible to supply all the high-resolution instruments to the French Defense.

(image: ESA Pierre Carril)