Archive for the 'Thales Alenia Space' Category
Dec 29, 2009, post by Satellite News
Orbital Sciences Corporation ( NYSE:ORB ) announced today that it has signed a contract for a new geosynchronous ( GEO ) communications satellite contract with OverHorizon, with offices in the U.S., Sweden and Cyprus. The spacecraft will be based on Orbital’s industry-leading STARTM 2 satellite platform and will carry an on-board processing payload provided by Thales Alenia Space. Both Orbital and Thales Alenia Space will share in the contract responsibilities as co-prime partners. The satellite will be delivered in early 2012. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.
The order from OverHorizon extends Orbital’s industry-leading market share in smaller-sized GEO satellites. With the OverHorizons contract, Orbital has received orders for a total of 30 GEO communications from customers around the world since 2001. Including the OverHorizons spacecraft, Orbital currently has ten GEO satellites in various stages of design, manufacturing, testing and pre-launch preparations, and has options for three additional satellites that could be exercised in the future.
Dec 29, 2009, post by Artur Ślesik
Orbital Sciences Corporation ( NYSE:ORB ) announced today that it has signed a contract for a new geosynchronous ( GEO ) communications satellite contract with OverHorizon, with offices in the U.S., Sweden and Cyprus. The spacecraft will be based on Orbital’s industry-leading STARTM 2 satellite platform and will carry an on-board processing payload provided by Thales Alenia Space. Both Orbital and Thales Alenia Space will share in the contract responsibilities as co-prime partners. The satellite will be delivered in early 2012. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.
“The OverHorizon satellite order is the third time that Orbital and Thales Alenia Space have teamed since 2006 to provide a highly reliable and technically advanced satellite for our customers. Our previous joint satellite projects include the AMC-21 spacecraft for SES, which was launched in 2008, and the Koreasat 6 satellite for KT Corporation, which is currently in the manufacturing and test phase at our Dulles, Virginia facility,” said Mr. Michael Larkin, Orbital’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of its Space Systems Group.
Mr. Larkin also noted, “Over the past two weeks, Orbital has booked three new orders for our GEO communications satellite product line, including the IS-23 satellite for Intelsat and the Hylas 2 satellite for Avanti Communications. We continue to see excellent customer adoption of our reliable STAR platform from both established customers like Intelsat and new customers such as OverHorizon and Avanti.”
The OverHorizon satellite will provide a regenerative system for broadband communications services. Delivered via satellite, OverHorizon will provide its services to, from, and between small, inexpensive user terminals installed on mobile vehicles, such as cars, trucks, boats and airplanes.
The order from OverHorizon extends Orbital’s industry-leading market share in smaller-sized GEO satellites. With the OverHorizons contract, Orbital has received orders for a total of 30 GEO communications from customers around the world since 2001. Including the OverHorizons spacecraft, Orbital currently has ten GEO satellites in various stages of design, manufacturing, testing and pre-launch preparations, and has options for three additional satellites that could be exercised in the future.
Nov 27, 2009, post by Satellite News
At a ceremony today at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Tranquillity Node was transferred from European Space Agency to NASA, bringing extra living and working space one step closer to astronauts on board the International Space Station. Tranquility Node and Cupola, developed by Thales Alenia Space, continue their path towards their planned delivery to the space station early next year.
Luigi Pasquali, President and CEO of Thales Alenia Space Italy, confirms: “It makes me very proud to be able to inform that Thales Alenia Space plays such a key international role in the ambitious Space Station project. Our company has developed more than 50 percent of the pressurized elements, the living spaces of this orbiting complex. Thales Alenia Space is proud to be one of the major international industrial players involved in the development of orbiting infrastructures and space return and transport systems.”
Along with Node 3 , the Cupola will also join the Space Station onboard Endeavour’s STS-130 Mission. Cupola, which was also developed by Thales Alenia Space, is a technological, robotized control room, which will allow the astronauts to see and work through seven windows, looking out 360 degrees around the International Space Station.
The Nodes are key elements of the International Space Station’s architecture. They enable the interconnection and management of the various pressurized modules. Two out of three were designed and built by Thales Alenia Space in Italy for the European Space Agency: Node 2 Harmony, and its twin Node 3 Tranquillity.
Node 3 will help complete and extend the Station, also providing it with far more advanced functions: water recycling and oxygen regeneration, thereby revitalizing the air and removing toxic substances, monitoring and measuring all elements. Tranquillity will house the Cupola and provide further docks for future space vehicles.
Thales Alenia Space is also in charge of the provision of the necessary support to NASA for final checks and launch preparation. These activities are set to continue throughout all stages of the next mission and are delivered by ALTEC, a company set up jointly by Thales Alenia Space, the Italian Space Agency and public entities from Italy’s Piedmont region.
In Turin, the company has also developed many important elements for the International Space Station. Apart from Node 2, Node 3 and the Cupola, Thales Alenia Space is also prime contractor for the three pressurized Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules (MPLM): Leonardo, Raffaello and Donatello. The company is also one of the main developers of the scientific laboratory Columbus and of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). It is indeed thanks to these successes that Thales Alenia Space has recently been awarded an important NASA contract for Orbital Sciences, for the design and development of nine pressurized modules under the scope of the Commercial Resupply Services program.
