Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has signed a €107 million contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the supply of six additional radar-based satellites for the Italian Earth observation constellation, IRIDE. This new contract bolsters Thales Alenia Space’s engineering and industrial capabilities in developing innovative and flexible observation satellites.
The IRIDE constellation aims to provide dual Earth observation capabilities to monitor both the Italian territory and Europe from space. With this latest contract, Thales Alenia Space will build a total of 13 satellites for the IRIDE project, including 12 small-sized satellites utilizing Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology and one satellite based on optical technology.
The newly contracted satellites will rely on the scalable NIMBUS (New Italian Micro Bus) platform, which Thales Alenia Space has designed for rapid production and high performance. This platform is tailored for high-revisit and high-capacity constellations, ensuring very high throughput.
“I would like to thank the European and Italian Space Agencies for once again entrusting Thales Alenia Space’s competences and expertise,” said Giampiero Di Paolo, Senior Vice President of Observation, Exploration and Navigation at Thales Alenia Space. He emphasized that the IRIDE constellation will leverage advanced sensing instruments and technologies, combining microwave imaging with radar sensors and optical imaging across various spatial resolutions and frequency ranges. This will establish IRIDE as a cutting-edge program in Earth observation.
IRIDE is one of the most significant European space initiatives in the field of Earth observation. It is a government project funded through Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), with additional support from the National Integration Plan (PNC). The IRIDE constellation is set to become operational by 2026 and is managed by ESA in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
Thales Alenia Space’s contribution to the program includes the development of sophisticated satellite operating modes to support high revisit rates. The data generated by these satellites will be integrated with existing and future programs, including COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation and Prisma, as well as the European Copernicus Earth observation program.
In addition to radar satellites, Thales Alenia Space will supply an optical satellite specifically designed to meet operational needs. This optical payload will be developed in partnership with Italian companies Media Lario and TSD-space, which specialize in creating instruments and electronics for space applications.
The satellites will be manufactured in Italy, with contributions from a network of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the space sector. The data provided by IRIDE will be invaluable not only for researchers monitoring environmental conditions but also for Civil Protection and public administrations tasked with protecting coastlines, monitoring critical infrastructures, and assessing air quality and weather conditions. This data will also pave the way for commercial applications developed by startups and industries within the geospatial sector.
