Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67 percent) and Leonardo (33 percent), has won Italy’s National Award for Innovation 2017 (“Premio dei Premi 2017”), sponsored by the COTEC Foundation.

The award, which recognizes Thales Alenia Space as one of the nine most innovative Italian enterprises in the industry and services sector, was presented at the Chamber of Deputies in a ceremony attended by President Laura Boldrini. The prestigious National Award for Innovation recognizes people and companies that change the world and reflects the spirit of the 2017 National Innovation Day, established in 2008 by the Council of Ministers (#InnovazioneItalia).

Thales Alenia Space had already won Confindustria’s Enterprise for Innovation IXI Prize, being named the most innovative Italian company in the Large Industry category.

The space sector today harbors a wealth of knowledge and is capable of generating tremendous innovation. Thales Alenia Space, in terms of innovative products and processes, is a resolutely future-centric enterprise, with a broad international presence and state-of-the-art technologies. Thales Alenia Space’s plant in L’Aquila employs robots, cobots (collaborative robots, designed to work closely with people) and other new production technologies to improve flexibility and reduce time-to-market. The multipurpose Cratos (Collaborative Robot Addressed To Operative Solutions), for instance, is already integrating electronic components into the first COSMO-SkyMed second generation satellite, the first in a new Earth Observation (EO) constellation.

Donato Amoroso, the CEO of Thales Alenia Space Italy, stated that winning this prize today is a source of great pride. It also clearly shows how innovation is an integral part of a successful modern business strategy, especially for the company as the firm operates in a cutting-edge market, where the application of particularly innovative technologies can make a difference.”