Telespazio provides services that include the design and development of space systems, the management of launch services and in-orbit satellite control, Earth observation services, integrated communications, satellite navigation and localization and scientific programmes. The company manages space infrastructure, such as the Fucino Space Centre - and is involved in programmes including Galileo,[1]EGNOS, Copernicus,[2]COSMO-SkyMed, SICRAL [3] and Göktürk.[4]
Telespazio operates in France with Telespazio France; in Germany with Telespazio Germany GmbH, GAF and Spaceopal; in the United Kingdom with Telespazio VEGA UK; in Spain with Telespazio Ibérica; in Romania with Rartel. Telespazio operates in South America through Telespazio Brasil and Telespazio Argentina. In Italy, the company is also present through e-GEOS.
During 1964, Telespazio helped create history for its role in facilitating the first television broadcasts, directly from Fucino via the Telstar satellite.[5] During the following year, it signed its first agreement with communications satellite service provider Intelsat; in June 1965, commercial telecommunications traffic was inaugurated between North America and Europe. In 1968, Intelsat and Telespazio signed an agreement to provide the first telemetry and remote control services on Intelsat satellites. During 1969, the firm played a role in distributing the live broadcast of the Apollo 11Moon landing across Europe.[5]
During the 1970s, Telespazio experienced a period of expansion and diversification. During May 1974, it signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA to engage itself in the Landsat program, gathering satellite imagery for Earth Observation purposes according to the signed in May 1974.[5] During that same year, Telespazio became involved in the development of the Sirio programme, thus helping to launch the first Italian telecommunications satellite during 1977. Other major activities of the decade included the in-orbit control of satellites, and the opening of a second space centre in Gera Lario, Lombardia in 1977.[5]
In the 1980s, the company continued to be involved in the development of several Italian space-related programmes, such as Italsat.[5] During 1983, under the auspices of CNR and subsequently, the Italian Space Agency (ASI), Telespazio established and managed the Matera Space Center for Geodesy Operations. In 1987, it inaugurated its third space center handling satellites communications, based in Scanzano, Palermo.[5]
On 30 May 1991, Telespazio launched the ARGO project, the first closed network equipped with small fixed antennas for emergency communications, intended for Italian civil protection.[5] During 1994, Telespazio Argentina, based in Buenos Aires, is established. On 30 April 1996, the BeppoSAX scientific satellite, operated by the firm, was launched.[5] In the following year, it founded its second subsidiary, Telespazio Brasil, based in Rio de Janeiro. During 1998, Telespazio partnered with Romanian firm Radiocom to establish the Rartel Company, thus developing a presence in this country as well.[5] That same year, the firm finalised an agreement with European satellite operator Eutelsat to take control and commercialise of the EMS payload carried on the Italsat F2 communications satellite.[6]
On 7 February 2001, Italy's first military communications satellite system, the Telespazio-managed SICRAL 1, was launched.[5] During December 2002, the firm became a part of the Italian aerospace conglomerate Finmeccanica; the acquisition had involved a lengthy period of negotiation with Telespazio's former parent company, Telecom Italia.[7][8] On 25 July 2003, Telespazio acquired the German Earth observation satellite services specialist GAF AG.[5]
The company became a Franco-Italian joint venture on 1 July 2005, through a merger between Telespazio and the space services division of Alcatel.[9] Creation of the joint venture was concurrent with the creation of Alcatel Alenia Space (now Thales Alenia Space), formed by the merger of two other Alcatel and Finmeccanica (since 2016 rebranded Leonardo-Finmeccanica) space businesses (Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio respectively).[10][11]
During 2007, the European Commission (EC) approved the transfer to Thales of Alcatel's interests in joint ventures Alcatel Alenia Space (Thales: 67%; Finmeccanica: 33%) and Telespazio (Finmeccanica: 67%; Thales: 33%); this restructuring resulted in the creation of a new space-orientated alliance between Thales and Finmeccanica.[12][13] Prior to approving the change, the EC had performed an in-depth investigation due to concerns that the transfer may have had a detrimental effect on downstream satellite and subsystem competition.[14]
In January 2011, Telespazio acquired the space activities of two Finmeccanica subsidiares, the Italy-based Elsag Datamat Space and the UK-based VEGA (the latter was subsequently renamed Telespazio VEGA UK) for an undisclosed price.[15][16] On 20 September 2011, a strike at the company reportedly caused a delay in the launch of an Ariane 5heavy-lift launch vehicle.[17]
During 2017, Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio formed a partnership with Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries to accelerate plans for a constellation of 60 Earth observation satellites.[18] In the following year, Orange S.A. teamed up with the firm to provide satellite-based telecommunications to the French military.[19]
In September 2019, Airbus partnered with Telespazio to market military telecommunications services using the future Syracuse IV satellites.[20]
Intelsat S.A. is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, from 1964 to 2001, it was an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international telecommunications and broadcast services.
Thales Group is a French multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures electrical systems as well as devices and equipment for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security sectors. The company is headquartered in Paris' business district, La Défense, and its stock is listed on the Euronext Paris.
Alenia Aeronautica was an Italian aerospace company. Its subsidiaries included Alenia Aermacchi and Alenia Aeronavali.
Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the 12th largest defence contractor in the world based on 2020 revenues. The company is partially owned by the Italian government, which holds 30.2% of the company's shares and is its largest shareholder.
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.
SELEX Sistemi Integrati S.p.A. was an aerospace, defence and security-related electronics manufacturing company headquartered in Rome, Italy and a wholly owned subsidiary of Finmeccanica. It designed and developed systems for homeland security; systems and radar sensors for air defence, battlefield management, naval warfare, coastal and maritime surveillance; air traffic control; and turn-key airport solutions. The company had around 4,500 employees. On 1 January 2013, it merged with its sister companies SELEX Galileo and SELEX Elsag to form Selex ES.
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.
European Satellite Navigation Industries, formerly called Galileo Industries until legal action prompted a name change, was a joint venture of the companies Alcatel Alenia Space and Thales (France), Finmeccanica (Italy), EADS Astrium and Galileo Sistemas y Servicios.
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.
COSMO-SkyMed is an Earth-observation satellite space-based radar system funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and Ministry of Defence and conducted by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), intended for both military and civilian use. The prime contractor for the spacecraft was Thales Alenia Space. COSMO SkyMed is a constellation of four dual use Intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISR) Earth observation satellites with a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) as main payload, the result of the intuition of Giorgio Perrotta in the early nineties. The synthetic-aperture radar was developed starting in the late nineties with the SAR 2000 program funded by ASI.
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.
SICRAL 1B is a military communications satellite built by Thales Alenia Space for Italian Armed Forces. It is a dual-use spacecraft: Telespazio will use some of the satellite's transmission capacity and some will be used by the Italian defense ministry and NATO. The spacecraft is based on the Italsat 3000 bus and includes one EHF/Ka band, three UHF-band and five active SHF-band transponders. It is designed to be operable for 13 years.
Telespazio UK Ltd. is a British space company based in Luton, Bedfordshire. Founded in 1978 by a small group of engineers at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, VEGA presently works with various space agencies, satellite operators and manufacturers around the world. It works with the European Space Agency (ESA) and ESOC in Germany, European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, ESA Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN) in Rome, Italy, and European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Madrid, Spain.
Olympus-1 was a communications satellite built by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, along with Fokker and SPAR Aerospace, for the European Space Agency. At the time of its launch on 12 July 1989, it was the largest civilian telecommunications satellite ever built, and sometimes known as "LargeSat" or "L-Sat". The satellite had a series of unfortunate accidents in orbit and went out of service on 11/12 August 1993. The first accident was the loss of ability to articulate the satellite's solar arrays. This was later followed by the loss of an on-board gyro during the height of the Perseid meteor shower. The satellite spun out of control and efforts to stabilise it resulted in the expenditure of the majority of its fuel. Subsequently, it was moved to a GEO disposal orbit and was put out of commission. The Olympus bus was reincarnated as Alphabus, made by the same manufacturers, this time for Inmarsat.
Telstar is the name of various communications satellites. The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the first television pictures, telephone calls, and telegraph images, and provided the first live transatlantic television feed. Telstar 2 was launched May 7, 1963. Telstar 1 and 2—though no longer functional—still orbit the Earth.
Yahsat 1A is a communications satellite constructed by EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space for Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat). It was launched in April 2011 from Arianespace's Guiana Space Centre in Kourou French Guiana in a dual payload launch with Intelsat New Dawn atop an Ariane 5 ECA rocket. Yahsat Y1A is based on the Eurostar E3000 satellite bus and had a launch mass of about 6000 kg. It is intended to provide Ku, Ka and C-band communications to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Southwest Asia. It is in geosynchronous orbit at 52.5 degrees East.
Göktürk-1 is a high resolution Earth observation satellite designed and developed for the Turkish Ministry of National Defence by the Italian space service company Telespazio with technological input from Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) and ASELSAN of Turkey.
Syracuse is a series of French military communications satellite constellations.
The Fucino Space Centre is the largest teleport in the world for civilian uses used for the control of artificial satellites, for telecommunications and for hosting, television and network services multimedia. Located in the Fucino plain in Abruzzo within the municipal area of Ortucchio, near Avezzano (AQ), it is named after the engineer Piero Fanti, first director of Telespazio, and managed by the same company consisting of two joint ventures, the Italian Leonardo (Finmeccanica) for 67% and the French Thales for the remaining 33%.
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