Thales Alenia Space has won a contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to lead a nine-month study regarding satellite communications solutions for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). The ESPRIT (Emerging system concepts for UAS command & control via satellite) study will focus on the provision of communication capacity for Command & Control (C2) links to Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs) flying through civilian airspace. As of today, UAVs are operated exclusively in so-called “segregated airspace” where they do not interfere with non-military aircraft. As the leader of an industrial consortium for ESPRIT, Thales Alenia Space will study solutions at both spectrum and system levels. To cover all aspects of the domain, its team includes major actors in the aeronautical satellite communications, UAS, space systems and regulatory issues.
And, Thales Alenia Space España has won major contracts worth more than seven million Euros for the supply of equipment for S-band data communications systems for two CSO optical satellites, for MUSIS program, with an option for a third, and for three RADARSAT satellite observation program of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The CSO (Optical Space Component) is the French contribution to the future MUSIS (Multinational Space-based Imaging System) constellation, that will include optical and radar space components from different countries. The CSO satellites realization contract has been awarded in 2010 to Astrium by the CNES (the French space agency), who was acting as contracting authority on behalf of the DGA (Direction Générale de l'Armement – the French procurement agency).The RADARSAT constellation mission is the evolution of the current RADARSAT program to ensure continuity of data and improving the current Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and system reliability. Thales Alenia Space España has signed agreements with the companies Astrium SAS and Bristol Aerospace to start the development, manufacture and supply of a total of 10 equipments, (four for the two CSO satellites and six for the three RADARSAT satellites), plus two optional equipment for the third possible CSO satellite.
Astrium artistic concept of the French CSO optical and infrared reconnaissance satellite system
The Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TTC) data communications equipments to be supplied are the latest generation technology developed by the Spanish company, with application in Earth observation and science missions, telecommunications and space vehicles, they are currently in operation on board the CryoSat satellite for European Space Agency (ESA) and Aquarius SAC / D satellite for the Argentina Space Agency (CONAE) and NASA. In addition, have also been recently provided flight equipments for the missions of the ESA (SWARM to study the geomagnetic field) and for the European satellite navigation program Galileo (IOV phase), to CONAE for its SAOCOM observation mission, and for the first NASA space transportation vehicle Cygnus. Furthermore, are currently being in process of manufacturing fifty equipments for over the largest global missions: GMES-Sentinel, Ingenio, Astroterra, Kazakhstan, Egypsat, Athena Fidus, Sicral, etc.