Thales Alenia Space is one of the world's leading designers of telecommunications satellites, platforms and payloads. The telecom segment accounts for half of the company's business.
The French-Italian joint venture offers a wide range of solutions, from high-performance components and equipment, to the turnkey supply of complete systems. Furthermore, our Spacebus family of platforms for geostationary satellites is being upgraded with Spacebus NEO, a new range of platforms that fully meets operators' expectations for greater competitiveness, flexibility and multi-launcher compatibility.
We also offer a range of flexible payloads, perfectly aligned with operators' evolving requirements for geostationary telecom missions. In 2014, Thales Alenia Space won four new contracts for the construction of five telecom satellites.
SPACEBUS NEO: A FLEXIBLE, COMPETITIVE PLATFORM, COMPATIBLE WITH ALL LAUNCHERS
Our Spacebus family of platforms is expanding with the addition of a new range of geostationary telecom platforms, Spacebus NEO, which will be available in various versions, including one with all-electric propulsion.
A WIDE VARIETY OF CONFIGURATIONS
New platforms will be available in a wide variety of versions for all types of geostationary satellites, from small to extra-large. Operators can choose the configuration that best meets their needs, from all-electric, to hybrid, to all-chemical propulsion. Lighter, more robust, modular and powerful, Spacebus NEO platforms perfectly meet operators' expectations for greater competitiveness, flexibility and multi-launcher compatibility. Available starting in 2016, they will be able to handle payloads of up to 2,000 kg, with a record power rating of 20 kW.
ALL-ELECTRIC VERSION
The all-electric Spacebus NEO is already being marketed. It is able to handle payloads exceeding 1,400 kg, with over 16 kW of power.
FLEXIBLE PAYLOADS: PLANNING FOR THE UNEXPECTED
Thales Alenia Space has developed a broad range of solutions enabling operators to adapt to unexpected developments during both the construction of the satellite and its life in orbit.
These solutions allow the satellite to be reconfigured in orbit, including changes to service zones, new allocations of satellite power between service zones, communications channels with variable bandwidths and frequencies, frequency hopping for encrypted communications, and interference-resistant, flexible satellite command.
117 SATELLITES, 3 CONSTELLATIONS, 1 PRIME CONTRACTOR: THALES ALENIA SPACE
The successful launch of the third batch of O3b satellites on December 18, 2014 bolstered Thales Alenia Space's leading position in telecommunications constellations, based on the total of 117 satellites ordered by Globalstar, O3b and Iridium NEXT. The company's expertise dates back to the early 1990s, when we were already prime contractor for the 72 satellites in Globalstar's first-generation constellation.
A SINGLE PLATFORM FOR DIFFERENT PAYLOADS: ELITEBUS
Thales Alenia Space capitalized on its expertise in telecom constellations to offer EliTeBUS, a high-performance platform combining agility, flexibility and competitiveness. It was designed to support payloads exceeding 500 kg with 2000 watts of power. Already validated in orbit, it can easily handle a wide variety of missions, including dedicated satellite clusters or constellations in low or medium Earth orbit.
Thales Alenia Space is prime contractor and the exclusive supplier for the last 30 years of military telecommunications systems, with three generations of Syracuse satellites for France, and two Sicral first-generation satellite, plus the second-generation Sicral 2, for the Italian defense ministry, Athena-Fidus for military and dual telecommunications, and two Satcom BW satellites for Germany. With Athena-Fidus and Sicral 2, Thales Alenia Space is at the heart of European defense collaboration.
Thales Alenia Space has also exported products reflecting its dual telecom system expertise to Turkey, Brazil and South Korea.