Thales Alenia Space () is a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between the French technology corporation

Thales Group Thales S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

(67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It provides space-based systems, including satellites and ground segments, used for

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navig ...

earth observation Earth observation (EO) is the gathering of information about the physical, chemical, and biosphere, biological systems of the planet Earth. It can be performed via remote sensing, remote-sensing technologies (Earth observation satellites) or throu ...

space exploration Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted bo ...

and scientific purposes. The company is the second largest industrial participant in the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS), having produced numerous pressurized modules for the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(ESA) including the

Cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

, the node modules

Harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

and

Tranquility Tranquillity (also spelled tranquility) is the quality or state of being tranquil; that is, calm, serene, and worry-free. The word tranquillity appears in numerous texts ranging from the religious writings of Buddhism—where the term refers to ...

, and the structure of the

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, the capital city of the U.S. state of Ohio * Columbus, Georgia, a city i ...

laboratory. It is a key contributor to

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

, a European global satellite navigation system, being responsible for the ground segment in particular. In 2021, the company was also awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission to build 6 of the 12 new Galileo Second Generation satellites. The company is also an important industrial partner towards development of the

Lunar Gateway The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is a planned space station which is to be assembled in orbit around the Moon. The Gateway is intended to serve as a communication hub, science laboratory, and habitation module for astronauts as part ...

. Thales Alenia Space has 17 industrial plants in Europe as well a joint venture in the United States, Leostella. This JV with the

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

-based company,

BlackSky Global Spaceflight Industries, Inc. is an American private aerospace company based out of Herndon, Virginia, that specializes in geospatial intelligence services. It sold its satellite rideshare business, Spaceflight, Inc., in June 2020. Spaceflig ...

, is mostly dedicated to the development of the

BlackSky Pathfinder-1 BlackSky Pathfinder-1 is an Earth imaging satellite. The satellite is equipped with payloads from Harris Corporation designed to image an area approximately . It is a demonstration satellite for BlackSky Global, a Seattle-based company intend ...

high revisit optical constellation.

History

Thales Alenia Space arose as a result of the French defense electronics specialist

deciding to buy out the participation of

Alcatel Alcatel SA was a French industrial conglomerate active between 1963 and 2006. It has roots to ''Compagnie Générale d’Electricité'' (CGE), a conglomerate founded in 1898 as an early state owned cable and telephone equipment company that lat ...

in two

joint-venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

s between France's Alcatel and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Finmeccanica Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the 12th largest ...

, ''Alcatel Alenia Space'' and

Telespazio Telespazio Spa is a European spaceflight services company founded in 1961. It is a joint venture owned by Leonardo (67%) and Thales Group (33%) headquartered in Rome. Telespazio provides services that include the design and development of space ...

. Accordingly, on 1 June 2005, ''Alcatel Alenia Space'' was established by the merger of ''Alcatel Space'' and ''Alenia Spazio''; it was initially owned by

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel-Lucent S.A. () was a multinational telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France. The company focused on Fixed line telephone, fixed, Mobile phone, mobile and telecommunications convergence, ...

(67%) and Finmeccanica (33%). The creation of the company was concurrent with the creation of Telespazio Holding; this too was a merger of Finmeccanica and Alcatel businesses (''Telespazio'' and Alcatel's ''Space Services and Operations'' respectively). On 5 April 2006, Alcatel announced that it intended to sell its share in Alcatel Alenia Space (and its 33% stake in Telespazio) to Thales Group. On 10 April 2007, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, which had performed an in-depth investigation into the proposed transaction over its potential impact on market competition, gave its approval for the transference to proceed. That same day, a Thales Group press release hailed the creation of a new space alliance between itself and Finmeccanica. According to a statement by Thales UK chief executive Alex Dorrian issued during 2007, Thales Alenia Space has actively sought out opportunities for both partnership and acquisition amongst other space enterprises. In December 2007, it was announced that Thales Alenia Space and Russian satellite specialist

NPO PM JSC Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev () is a Russian satellite manufacturing company. It is based in the closed city of Krasnoyarsk-26 (today called Zheleznogorsk), Krasnoyarsk Krai near the city of Krasnoyarsk. The company was formerly ca ...

have agreed to develop the new ''Express-4000'' multi-mission

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satelli ...

, which incorporates Russian equipment with a Thales-built payload. Since then, Thales Alenia Space has developed

subcontracting A subcontractor is a person or business which undertakes to perform part or all of the obligations of another's contract, and a subcontract is a contract which assigns part of an existing contract to a subcontractor. A general contractor, prime ...

relationships with

North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...

aerospace companies, including

Ball Aerospace Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., commonly Ball Aerospace, was an American manufacturer of spacecraft, components and instruments for national defense, civil space and commercial space applications. Until 2024, the firm was a wholly owned subs ...

and

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

Activities

Thales Alenia Space is a major European satellite specialist. These satellites range in purpose, from telecommunications to

Earth observation Earth observation (EO) is the gathering of information about the physical, chemical, and biosphere, biological systems of the planet Earth. It can be performed via remote sensing, remote-sensing technologies (Earth observation satellites) or throu ...

and

, including science and orbital infrastructures. Since 2007, the company has been regarded as the largest satellite manufacturer, in both the civilian and military sectors, in Europe. In the mid-1990s, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

stopped issuing export licenses for satellite components that will be launched on

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

rockets, fearing that such launches would help China's military. In response, Thales Alenia developed a line of

ITAR International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) is a set of U.S. Department of State regulations that control the export of defense and military technologies to safeguard national security and further its foreign policy objectives. Overvie ...

-free satellites that contained no restricted U.S. components. Between 2005 and 2012, numerous ITAR-free satellites, such as

Apstar 6 Apstar 6 is a communications satellite built by Alcatel Space, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, Alcatel, and was boosted into orbit on April 12, 2005, by Long March 3B launcher from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China. It provides APT Satellit ...

, Chinasat-6B, and

Apstar 7 Apstar-7 is a Chinese communications satellite which is operated by APT Satellite as part of the Apstar system. It was launched in 2012 as a replacement for the Apstar 2R satellite launched in 1997. Apstar-7 was constructed by Thales Alenia Spa ...

, were launched on Chinese

Long March The Long March ( zh, s=长征, p=Chángzhēng, l=Long Expedition) was a military retreat by the Chinese Red Army and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from advancing Kuomintang forces during the Chinese Civil War, occurring between October 1934 and ...

launch vehicles. However, the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

disputed the ITAR-free status of these satellites, issuing a US$8 million fine to the American company

Aeroflex Aeroflex Inc. was an American company which produced test equipment, RF and microwave integrated circuits, components and systems used for wireless communications. Its headquarters were located in Plainview, New York. In May 2014, Aeroflex was ...

for selling ITAR components. During 2013, Thales Alenia decided to discontinue its ITAR-free satellite line. A major proportion of Thales Alenia Space's business is centered around the production of communications satellites, in which it is a world leader. During 2010, Thales Alenia Space received a US$2.9 billion fixed-price contract to manufacture a total of 81 satellites for

Iridium Communications Iridium Communications Inc. (formerly Iridium Satellite LLC) is a publicly traded American company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, United States. Iridium operates the Iridium satellite constellation, a system of 80 satellites: 66 are active ...

NEXT NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...

satellite telephony A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio link through satellites orbiting the Earth instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. Therefor ...

network. It is also engaged in producing a separate batch of 24 satellites for

Globalstar Globalstar, Inc. is an American telecommunications company that operates a satellite constellation in low Earth orbit (LEO) for satellite phone, low-speed data transmission and earth observation. The Globalstar second-generation constellation con ...

's second generation network. The company is also responsible for producing 6 satellites for Galileo second generation, a European global satellite navigation system (GSNS). The company constructed the

Multi-Purpose Logistics Module A Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) is a large pressurized container that was used on Space Shuttle missions to transfer cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Two MPLMs made a dozen trips in the Shuttle cargo bay and initi ...

s, which were used to transport cargo inside the Space Shuttle orbiters. Thales Alenia Space also built several modules for the

(ISS): the

, the Columbus structure,

and Leonardo. After the American aerospace corporation

, Thales Alenia Space was the second largest industrial provider to the ISS. It also built the pressure vessels for the

Automated Transfer Vehicle The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable automated cargo spacecraft, cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV desi ...

(ATV) and

Cygnus spacecraft Cygnus is an Expendable launch system, expendable American Uncrewed spacecraft, automated cargo spacecraft designed for International Space Station (ISS) resupply missions. It was initially developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation with financia ...

. During the 2010s, Thales Alenia Space manufactured the

Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) is a European Space Agency (ESA) experimental suborbital re-entry vehicle. It was developed to serve as a prototype lifting body orbital return vehicle to validate the ESA's work in the field of reus ...

(IXV), a prototype

suborbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will no ...

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can flight, fly and gliding flight, glide as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and function as a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbit ...

intended to validate work towards reusable launcher systems, acting as a stepping stone towards the

Programme for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator in Europe The Programme for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator in Europe (PRIDE) is an Italian Space Agency programme that aims to develop a reusable robotic spaceplane named Space Rider in collaboration with the European Space Agency. The PRIDE programme was ...

(PRIDE program) and the consequential

Space Rider The Space Rider (Space Reusable Integrated Demonstrator for Europe Return) is a planned uncrewed orbital lifting body spaceplane aiming to provide the European Space Agency (ESA) with affordable and routine access to space.Space Rider PRIDE

Italian Aerospace Research Centre The Italian Aerospace Research Centre (, CIRA) is a consortium established in July 1984 to promote the growth and success of the aerospace industry in Italy (its head-office is in Capua). The majority of CIRA share capital is held by government org ...

Accessed: 15 November 2018 It has also engaged with other space exploration efforts, such as proposed lunar cargo landing vehicle. Since then, working with Avio, the company will build ESA's Space Rider reusable autonomous space transportation system, which draws on the heritage of the IXV demonstrator. The company will also be a key European partner onboard NASA's Artemis, aiming to bring physically astronauts back to the Moon in 2025. Thales Alenia Space will provide in particular three key modules for the Lunar Gateway space station. It will also deliver two pressurized modules for the Axiom commercial space station. Furthermore, Thales Alenia Space is developing a new line of on-orbit servicing spacecraft, capable of carrying out a wide range of operations in orbit, from satellite inspection and life extension, to robotic manipulation and deorbiting space debris. The company has also taken part to international space exploration missions across the Solar System such as '' Cassini-Huygens'' (Saturn exploration), ExoMars (Mars), BepiColombo (Mercury), Solar Orbiter(Sun), NASA’ Orion probe (lunar exploration, part NASA's ARTEMIS), and many more. The company is also prime contractor for

Euclid Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...

, ESA's science mission aimed to study the universe's dark matter and dark energy. In the fields of telecommunications, Thales Alenia Space has launched 2 major product lines over the last 2 decades, dubbed Spacebus Neo and Space Inspire. Both based on platforms including electrical propulsion systems. Spacebus NEO is used for very

high throughput satellites High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

, helping bridge the digital divide across the globe. In 2022, EUTELSAT KONNECT VHTS satellite, for telecommunications operator Eutelsat, was successfully launched by Arianespace. Built by Thales Alenia Space, this Spacebus NEO satellite was said to be the most powerful and capacitive one ever built in Europe at that time. Its mission is to provide fiber-like high speed Internet over Europe, especially in isolated areas, called white zones. The launch of the second product line, Space Inspire, was announced in 2019. It is a compact and fully-digitalized solution that can be reconfigured in orbit. It will enable telecommunications operators to dynamically allocate capacity where and when needed, in any bandwidth. The company has been leading the geostationary telecommunications market in 2021 and in 2022, winning 60% of telecom satellites contracts available on the open market in 2022. The same year the company was awarded several contracts for 6 telecommunications satellites, including 5 based on its Space Inspire solution. The company is also a lead player in Europe's Copernicus program, fully dedicated to

environmental monitoring Environmental monitoring is the processes and activities that are done to characterize and describe the state of the environment. It is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, and in many circumstances in which human activit ...

. In 2020, Thales Alenia Space was awarded five contracts for the six new Copernicus Expansion missions, as prime contractor for the CIMR, ROSE-L and CHIME satellites, and supplier of the CRISTAL and CO2M mission payloads. These new satellites will be used to measure the atmospheric carbon dioxide () produced by human activity, monitor sea ice thickness and overlying snow depth, provide improved services for sustainable agriculture and biodiversity management, observe ocean behavior, and support precision agriculture and food security. The company has been the industrial prime contractor for 3 generations of Meteosat European weather satellites. Third generation MTG, Meteosat Third Generation, is still under development. This latest generation will include 6 satellites: 4 imaging ones and 2 atmospheric sounders. The first MTG imaging satellite, dubbed MTG-I1, was successfully launched by Arianespace late 2022. A few days after, it was the turn of

SWOT SWOT may refer to: * ''SWOT'' (manga), a Japanese media franchise * Cramming (education) or swotting * SWOT analysis, a method to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to identify risks and issues that need solving * Surface Wa ...

oceanography satellite to be successfully orbited by SpaceX. Mostly built by Thales Alenia Space with contributions from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the French-U.S. satellite, produced for French Space Agency, CNES, and NASA, is set to revolutionize oceanography and hydrology. In the defense sector, a number of countries have chosen Thales Alenia Space for their military or dual telecommunications systems, providing front-line support for their armed forces in any theater of operations. In the market for space-based surveillance systems, Thales Alenia Space offers high and very-high resolution optical and radar payloads. The company is involved in numerous programs such as French Syracuse military satellites, Italian SICRAL, and many more. Thales Alenia Space is also the exclusive supplier of very-high-resolution optical instruments for French intelligence satellites, including the optical payloads on Helios, Pleiades and CSO. Through the LeoStella joint venture in the United States, a JV between Thales Alenia Space and US-based company BlackSky, the company is also contributing to the BlackSky constellation, which will include 60 optical observation satellites featuring submetric resolution and very high revisit rates. The company is also the industrial prime contractor for the two generations of

COSMO-SkyMed COSMO-SkyMed (COnstellation of small Satellites for the Mediterranean basin Observation) is an Earth-observation satellite space-based radar system funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and Ministry of Defence and conducted by the Ital ...

radar satellites for the Italian space agency and defense ministry. Image:Mplm in shuttle.jpg , A Multi-Purpose Logistics Module inside Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' Image:Exterior of Cupola - Exp28.jpg , ''Cupola'' module Image:Columbus module - cropped.jpg , ''Columbus'' module Image:Node 2 - STS-134.jpg , ''Harmony'' module (center) Image:Node 3 - Isolated view.jpg , ''Tranquility'' module (center) Image:STS-133 ISS-26 Permanent Multipurpose Module.jpg, ''Leonardo'' module Image:View of ATV-2 - cropped and rotated.jpg , Automated Transfer Vehicle Image:Bolden in-front of Cygnus.JPG , Pressurized vessel for the Cygnus spacecraft

Locations

In 2021, Thales Alenia Space had 8,000 employees operating in 17 industrial sites located in nine European countries (

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

): *

, France (also hosts the company's

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

in the

Cannes Mandelieu Space Center The Cannes Mandelieu Space Center is an industrial plant dedicated to spacecraft manufacturing, located in both the towns of Cannes and Mandelieu in France. After a long history in aircraft manufacturing, starting in 1929, the center became incr ...

) *

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, France *

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, Italy (Saccomuro and Tiburtina) *

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy *

L'Aquila L'Aquila ( ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of the Province of L'Aquila and the Abruzzo region in Italy. , it has a population of 69,902. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valley of the A ...

, Italy *

Gorgonzola Gorgonzola (, ) is a famously pungent Italian blue cheese made from unskimmed cow's milk; believed to have been created in the 9th century; now with use of its name controlled under the criteria of a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). Gorg ...

, Italy *

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

, Belgium (Thales Alenia Space ETCA (acronym of « Études Techniques et Constructions Aérospatiales ») ) *

Leuven, Belgium Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the sub-municipalities of ...

Hasselt, Belgium Hasselt (, , ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg in the Flemish Region of Belgium. As of 1 August 2023, Hasselt had a total population of 80,846. The old ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

(

Tres Cantos Tres Cantos () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain located in Community of Madrid. Originally belonging to Colmenar Viejo, it seceded from the latter municipality in 1991, becoming the youngest municipality in the region. The urban ...

), Spain *

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

(

Ditzingen Ditzingen (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Ditzenge'') is a town in the Ludwigsburg (district), district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located approximately 10 km northwest of Stuttgart, and 12 km southwest of Ludwigs ...

), Germany * Harwell, United Kingdom *

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, United Kingdom *

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, United Kingdom *

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, Poland *

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Switzerland *

Luxembourg City Luxembourg (; ; ), also known as Luxembourg City ( or ; ; or ), is the capital city of Luxembourg and the Communes of Luxembourg, country's most populous commune. Standing at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers in southern Luxe ...

, Luxembourg (Digital Center of Excellence opened in 2021)

Executive Board

Current CEO is Hervé Derrey since February 2020, replacing

Jean-Loïc Galle Jean-Loïc Galle (born 26 September 1959) is General Director of Opérations and Performance of Thales. Education Jean-Loïc Galle holds a master's degree in engineering from École Centrale Paris (class of 1982) and an MBA from INSEAD (class o ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Spacecraft manufacturers Space program of France Privately held companies of France Thales Group joint ventures Leonardo S.p.A. Companies based in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Cannes

History

Activities

Locations

Executive Board

See also

References

External links