Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Aerospace |
Founded | 1929 |
Headquarters | Cannes |
Key people | Pierre Lipsky, Center Director [1] |
Number of employees | 1,950 (Jan. 2009) |
Parent | Thales Alenia Space |
Website | http://www.thalesonline.com/space/index.html |
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 increasingly involved in aerospace activities after the Second World War, and satellites are now the plant's main product.
After having been the Satellite Division of Aérospatiale, then Alcatel Space in 1998, then Alcatel Alenia Space in 2005, the center is now part, since April 10, 2007, [2] of Thales Alenia Space and the headquarters of the company.
The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was a space telescope for infrared light designed and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), in cooperation with ISAS and NASA. The ISO was designed to study infrared light at wavelengths of 2.5 to 240 micrometres and operated from 1995 to 1998.
The Italian Space Agency is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy. The agency cooperates with numerous national and international entities who are active in aerospace research and technology.
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 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 Telescope in 2021. Herschel carries a 3.5-metre (11.5 ft) mirror and instruments sensitive to the far infrared and submillimetre wavebands (55–672 µm). Herschel was the fourth and final cornerstone mission in the Horizon 2000 programme, following SOHO/Cluster II, XMM-Newton and Rosetta.
Spacebus is a satellite bus produced at the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center in France by Thales Alenia Space. Spacebuses are typically used for geostationary communications satellites, and seventy-four have been launched since development started in the 1980s. Spacebus was originally produced by Aérospatiale and later passed to Alcatel Alenia Space. In 2006, it was sold to Thales Group as Thales Alenia Space.
CALIPSO is a joint NASA (USA) and CNES (France) environmental satellite, built in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center, which was launched atop a Delta II rocket on April 28, 2006. Its name stands for Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations. CALIPSO launched alongside CloudSat.
The Arab Satellite Communications Organization is a communications satellite operator in the Arab World, headquartered in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Arabsat was created to deliver satellite-based, public and private telecommunications services to the Arab States, in accordance with International Standards. With 21 member countries, the organization plays a vital role of enhancing communications in the Arab World.
Ekspress, is a series of geostationary communications satellites owned by Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC). The first satellite of this kind was launched on 13 October 1994. The satellites are produced by the company Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev.
Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France.
Galaxy 17 is a communications satellite owned by Intelsat to be located at 91° West longitude, serving the North American market. Galaxy 17 was intended to replace SBS 6. It was built by Alcatel Alenia Space, in its Cannes Mandelieu Space Center, France.
PROTEUS is a 3-axis stabilized platform designed for mini-satellites weighing approximately 500 kg operating in low Earth orbit. The platform is used by six scientific satellites developed as part of the space program of the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) for the European Space Agency: Jason-1, 2 and 3, CALIPSO, CoRoT, and SMOS. The platform is developed by the satellite division of Aérospatiale.
The Regional African Satellite Communication Organization (RASCOM) will provide telecommunication services, direct TV broadcast services and Internet access in rural areas of Africa. Under an agreement with RASCOM, RascomStar-QAF will implement RASCOM's first 14 communications satellite project. This joint African project is expected to lower the continent's dependency on international satellite networks such as Intelsat.
Sentinel-3 is an Earth observation heavy satellite series developed by the European Space Agency as part of the Copernicus Programme. It currently consists of 2 satellites: Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B. After initial commissioning, each satellite was handed over to EUMETSAT for the routine operations phase of the mission. Two recurrent satellites— Sentinel-3C and Sentinel-3D— will follow in approximately 2024 and 2028 respectively to ensure continuity of the Sentinel-3 mission.
Nilesat 201, is an Egyptian communications satellite, which was launched on 4 August 2010.
ChinaSat 9, also known as ZX-9, is a Chinese communications satellite.
Eutelsat 36B is a communications satellite in the W series operated by Eutelsat. It is co-located with Eutelsat 36A satellite at 36° East. It was launched on 24 November 2009, at 14:19:10 UTC, by a Proton launch vehicle.
Reynald Seznec is a French engineer and businessman. He was the President and CEO of the Franco-Italian company Thales Alenia Space from 2008 to 2012, succeeding to Pascale Sourisse in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center.
Athena-Fidus is a French-Italian telecommunication satellite providing high-throughput secure communications to both nation's armed forces and their emergency services. It was manufactured by Thales Alenia Space under the supervision of CNES, the Direction générale de l'armement (DGA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). It complements the lower-throughput but more secure Syracuse 3 satellites. The satellite has a wet mass of 3080 kg and was placed on geostationary orbit in 2014. Its expected lifetime is 15 years.
Composante Spatiale Optique is a French military Earth observation satellite program of third generation. It replaces the Helios 2 satellites. It is sometimes referred to as the MUltinational Space-based Imaging System for Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Observation.
AMC-9 is a commercial broadcast communications satellite owned by SES World Skies, part of SES S.A. Launched on 6 June 2003, from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on the 300th launch of a Proton family rocket, AMC-9 is a hybrid C-band / Ku-band satellite located at 83° West, covering Canada, United States, Mexico, and Caribbean. It is owned and operated by SES S.A., formerly SES Americom.