The Cannes Mandelieu Space Center is an industrial plant dedicated to

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

manufacturing, located in both the towns of

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 ...

and Mandelieu in France. After a long history in

aircraft manufacturing An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of Aircraft design process, designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a hi ...

, starting in 1929, the center became increasingly involved in

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astron ...

activities after the Second World War, and

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

s are now the plant's main product. After having been the Satellite Division of

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale () was a major French state-owned aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and arms industry, defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as () through the merger of three established state-owned companies: Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation ...

, then Alcatel Space in 1998, then Alcatel Alenia Space in 2005, the center is now part, since April 10, 2007, of

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

and the headquarters of the company.

Main products

As prime contractor

* the series of

Meteosat The Meteosat series of satellites are geostationary meteorological satellites operated by EUMETSAT under the Meteosat Transition Programme (MTP) and the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) program. The MTP program was established to ensure the oper ...

first and second generation * the series of communication satellites Spacebus * the series of Globalstar's second-generation satellites * the series of

O3b O3b is a satellite constellation in Medium Earth orbit (MEO) owned and operated by SES, and designed to provide lower-latency broadband connectivity to remote locations for mobile network operators and internet service providers, maritime, av ...

satellites * the Infrared Space Observatory * the '' Huygens'' space probe, which landed on

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

* the

Proteus In Greek mythology, Proteus ( ; ) is an early prophetic sea god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea" (''hálios gérôn''). Some who ascribe a specific domain to Prote ...

series of small low Earth orbit satellites, including ** the

COROT CoRoT (French: ; English: Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) was a space telescope mission which operated from 2006 to 2013. The mission's two objectives were to search for extrasolar planets with short orbital periods, particularly t ...

satellite ** Jason-1,

Jason-2 OSTM/Jason-2, or Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite, was an international Earth observation satellite altimeter joint mission for sea surface height measurements between NASA and CNES. It was the third satellite in a series ...

and

Jason-3 Jason-3 is a satellite altimeter created by a partnership of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), and is an international cooperative mi ...

** the CALIPSO satellite * the ''Planck'' spacecraft * the

Herschel Space Observatory The Herschel Space Observatory was a space observatory built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). It was active from 2009 to 2013, and was the largest infrared telescope ever launched until the launch of the James Webb Space Telesco ...

* ISS modules Node 2, Node 3, ''

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 ...

'', and the MPLM

As the main subcontractor

* the cameras for the French military observation satellites Helios-1 and Helios-2 * the IASI, Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer,the CNES web site
/ref> embarked on-board Metop * the MERIS camera embarked on board the

ENVISAT Envisat ("Environmental Satellite") is a large Earth-observing satellite which has been inactive since 2012. It is still in orbit and considered space debris. Operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), it was the world's largest civilian Ear ...

mission.

References

External links

*
See CASPWiki
Spacecraft manufacturers Privately held companies of France Space program of France {{Manufacturing-company-stub

Main products

As prime contractor

As the main subcontractor

See also

References

External links