The victory was expected, but nonetheless delighted the leaders of Thales Alenia Space. The subsidiary of Thales, 67% owned by him and 33% by Italy's Finmeccanica, has won a lucrative contract for the construction of six European meteorological satellites third generation. The European Space Agency (ESA) made the announcement Friday. The contract amount is not included in the release of Thales, but industry sources estimate it at 1.5 billion euros.
"If the negotiations end with success, management will submit the contract to the committee for industrial policy of ESA for approval and action by member countries participating in the program. What is envisaged for June, "said Agency.The satellites must be in operation from late 2016.
"We are proud to meet the challenge of more ambitious geostationary satellite ever developed in Europe," said CEO of Thales Alenia Space, Reynald Seznec, quoted in the press. Sites of Thales Alenia Space in Cannes and Toulouse, as well as those of OHB in Bremen and Munich will be involved in the project, in "in close cooperation with the German industrialist."
"Forecasts near-real time
These satellites MTG (Meteosat Third Generation) should help predict the weather with greater accuracy. Unlike existing satellite, they will be stabilized in three axes with a set of wheels and will no longer need to turn on themselves, allowing them to operate continuously."The shots will be more frequent," said Donny Aminou, head of MTG instruments to the European Space Agency (ESA) bad credit payday loans . "Plus we have accurate data, the more we improve the accuracy of weather forecasts in near real-time, but in the long term through improved models to better assess what will happen in five or six days, and even make the longer-term data on climatology, "exults the scientist.
The atmosphere can be observed every 10 minutes instead of the current 15, while satellite imagers MTG will provide coverage of Europe every 2.5 minutes. In addition, a lightning detector on board imaging satellites of MTG to see upcoming rainy training.The forecasters can anticipate the time with a margin of error smaller. A rainy period, instead of being announced with a probability of 80%, may for example be 90%.
EADS cringe
Happiness Thales is a natural misfortune of EADS. Astrium, a subsidiary of the European manufacturer dedicated to space systems and services civilians and military, was also in the race. The ESA noted that both bids were "technically good" and lower the amount of the budget imposed. But he explains that he chose the Thales offer because it was cheaper.
This announcement is another setback for the group who had already failed earlier this year another major contract for the European navigation system Galileo satellite, given the small German group OHB. Questioned by AFP, Astrium (EADS) declined to make comment.
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