2023 in the rear view mirror & looking ahead to the New Year

As we are looking ahead 2024, I wanted to seize the opportunity to highlight the incredible milestones and emotional moments we shared with our teams last year.

2023 will be remembered for giving birth to major space events and scientists’ discoveries, such as the incredible images delivered by Euclid, the first Meteosat Third Generation weather satellite and SWOT oceanography mission, all one-of-kind satellites. Satellites help monitor the Earth's environment, provide geolocation data to help us travel and navigate safely, explore the wonders of our solar system and connect people around the world. Let’s have a look together to some of major space highlights in 2023.

Back to the Moon to stay

40 years ago, our teams from Turin delivered their first pressurized module embarked on Spacelab, a reusable laboratory developed by ESA and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. 40 years later, after delivering a major part of the International Space Station’s habitable volume, we will produce nearly 80% of Lunar Gateway’s pressurized volume. I think we can be proud of what we've achieved! Gateway is a future space station that will orbit around the Moon, as part of NASA’s ARTEMIS program aiming to bring astronauts back to the Moon for long-duration missions.

End of last year, the Italian Space Agency selected our company to build a lunar Multi-Purpose Habitat, that will be the first permanent outpost on the Moon.

Discovering the Universe’s deepest secrets

I was astonished by the first full-color images delivered by Euclid. The horsehead nebula in particular was just amazing. I had the privilege to see the satellite several times in our clean rooms of Turin and Cannes. I also had the chance to attend the launch in July. It was a stunning experience as I knew, that day in particular, that Euclid would make history in the years to come. A tremendous jewel of high technology, Euclid satellite will explore dark energy and dark matter to better understand the origin of the Universe’s accelerating expansion.

Monitoring environment from space

Earth observation satellites monitoring environment provide images and data weighing 60% of the essential climate variables tracked by experts. Our teams can really be proud of the quality and accuracy of the first images provided by MTG-I1 and SWOT, both launched in December 2022.

MTG-I1 is part of the Meteosat Third Generation program that will include 6 satellites: 4 imaging and 2 sounding ones. These satellites are set to revolutionize weather forecasting and significantly improve accuracy. The imaging satellites carry lightning detectors and the sounding models will map the atmosphere in 3D. MTG-I1 captured a tremendous first image of the Earth in May 2023. Two months later, Eumetsat and ESA unveiled the first results from Europe’s first lightning detector that were really impressive as well.

Like MTG-I1, SWOT satellite entered into service and delivered its first images in March 2024. A joint mission between CNES and NASA, SWOT will measure the elevation of nearly all the water on Earth’s surface and provide one of the most comprehensive surveys yet of our planet’s surface water. Lakes, rivers, reservoirs and oceans - 90% of the Earth's surface waters can be probed thanks to this high-tech satellite.

New technologies to ensure states’ space sovereignty

Last year, our company was chosen by ESA to supply a first batch of six small satellites with synthetic aperture radars and one satellite based on optical technology for the Italian Earth observation constellation, IRIDE.

2023 was also marked by the successful launch of the French defense satellite SYRACUSE 4B, providing secure end-to-end communications.

Our teams also developed and kicked-off a new Earth observation offer dubbed ALL-IN-ONE that combines the best of radar, optical and ground segment technologies to offer night and day and all-weather capabilities with high image quality, reliability and flexibility for near-real-time surveillance. Based on that offer, PT Len Industri relies on us to build a multi-satellite Earth observation system providing radar and optical imagery for the Indonesian Ministry of Defense.

Providing connectivity all over the world

In 2023, 2 telecommunications satellites that we built, were designed to provide connectivity services and reduce the digital divide in some parts of the Globe. I am referring to Hispast’s Amazonas Nexus satellite, launched in February, that will cover the whole American continent. In Latin America, it will offer services in regions with low penetration of terrestrial infrastructures. As for SATRIA satellite, launched in June, it will also deliver high-speed Internet to the thousands of islands in the Indonesian archipelago, providing connectivity to schools, hospitals and public buildings not already connected by existing terrestrial or satellite systems.

The most capacitive satellite ever built in Europe, EUTELSAT KONNECT VHTS also entered into service in October 2023. It now offers very-high-speed Internet access everywhere in Europe, especially in isolated regions with poor terrestrial coverage. That means that even in the middle of a forest, anyone could have access to fiber-like Internet from Space!

In October, we were honored to sign an agreement with the Mongolia Ministry of Digital Development and Communications in order to deliver a national satellite telecommunications system. Named “Chinggis Sat” after Mongolia’s national hero Chinggis Khan, the satellite will make high-speed internet available throughout the country.

Iridium NEXT last batch of 5 satellites was also launched to support the blooming connectivity needs at any given moment and also in isolated areas.

Increased accuracy thanks to navigation space systems

The year got off to a flying start for the teams working in the navigation field. Thailand and Vietnam acquired search and rescue solution based on our MEOLUT Next solution. These innovative ground antennas are capable of detecting and locating distress signals from COSPAS-SARSAT beacons on land, in the air and at sea instantaneously, over a radius of 2,500 km centered respectively on Bangkok and Haiphong.

We also had two good news, first with EUSPA to provide maintenance and other support services for EGNOS V2 for a four-year period. A few months later, ESA and the European Commission chose our company to design and build the Galileo Second Generation Ground Mission Segment and execute system engineering activities.

Time to celebrate

Charleroi turning 60. Toulouse, L’Aquila and Rome turning 40… Last year, our teams celebrated with their families and relatives major plants’ anniversaries. These were great and memorable moments of sharing, also representing a real opportunity to remind all the work being done along the years by our teams to design and pioneer the space sector of the future!

More recently, I was interested in the UK-led Mars Balloon science project, in which over 200 students from primary schools designed experiments aboard a high-altitude balloon, reaching over 30 km above the Earth and encountering Mars-like conditions.

Innovating at full speed

More than ever, innovation is key to meet new customers’ requirements but also to reinforce Europe’s industrial competitiveness and its national states’ sovereignty.

We were proud to announce the future creation of the all-digital Space Smart Factory, one of the largest cutting-edge facilities of its kind in Europe. Based in Rome, this infrastructure will support the integration of numerous satellites for Earth observation, navigation & communications fields.

We also had the pleasure to unveil the Space Business Catalyst industry accelerator, an entity based in our facilities of Toulouse and Turin, designed to explore and create the conditions for startups and Thales Alenia Space to develop together disruptive space projects. In Toulouse, we also launched the “SiPack” Lab, the result of a fruitful partnership with Synergie Cad, aimed at producing compact electronic modules, known as "Systems-in-Package". SiPack is mass-production oriented, reducing the time it takes to bring our products to market and maintain our microelectronics competitiveness in France and Europe. Cannes’ clean rooms are now equipped with a new test bench, using collaborative robotics, that is capable of taking pictures of satellites’ solar panels. Dubbed CELL-FI, the solution also using Artificial Intelligence will help check and validate the quality of the solar panels before being mounted on satellites.

Never has our company’s #spaceforlife vision been so meaningful!

Happy New Year to each one of you!