The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA], through the Company's commercial launch business, has received a contract to launch the fourth satellite for the COSMO-SkyMed (Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation) program for Thales Alenia Space Italia, prime contractor of the Italian Space Agency.

The COSMO-SkyMed spacecraft is expected to be launched in 2010 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on a Delta II vehicle in the 7420-10 configuration. Boeing Launch Services will procure the launch vehicle and related support from United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture. To support a rapid initial operating capability, Boeing successfully launched the first three COSMO-SkyMed satellites from Vandenberg within the 17-month period between June 2007 and October 2008.

Thales Alenia Space Italia developed the COSMO-SkyMed program for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defense. This is an end-to-end Earth-observation system comprised of four medium-sized satellites and supporting ground stations, which provide orbit-control systems and data reception and processing. The system takes imagery of the Earth using an X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument capable of operating in all visibility conditions. Thales Alenia Space has provided Delta II tanks to Boeing since 2001 and built the Cupola and Harmony Node 2 elements of the International Space Station (ISS) for the European Space Agency. Boeing is the prime contractor for the ISS.



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