Aerospatial, the subsidiary of the thales group, thales alenia space, has been awarded a 3 billion euro contract for the operator telesat.

On Tuesday, February 9, Thales Alenia Space, a French and Italian company, won a historic contract against its adversary and partner Airbus Space. Thales owns 67% of Thales Alenia Space and 33% belongs to Leonardo.

The French manufacturer can therefore congratulate itself on having succeeded in acquiring such a contract. This contract with the Canadian operator Telesat, will allow Thales to send a multitude of satellites (298). This project, named “LightSpeed”, will allow professional users to have a high-speed equivalent to the fiber already in existence, from space, anywhere in the world. The project is expected to start in at least two years in the second half of 2023. Telesat has not said its last word, the company has managed to obtain approval from the FCC (Federal communication commission) to launch 1,300 new satellites after this contract. These satellites will be sent to an altitude of 36,000 km or low earth orbit to meet the ever-increasing need for broadband connectivity. Telesat has stated that by 2024 a full global service will be operational. The overall financing for this project is estimated at $5 billion.

This contract, which Thales was able to secure, once again confirms its position as the world’s leading industrial reference in the field of telecommunications satellite constellations. These particularly light satellites (700 kilograms), compared