Rome 16 February 2012 00:00
Telespazio, a Finmeccanica company, has been awarded new contracts with a total value of about EUR 112 million in the first few weeks of 2012.
In particular, the company's subsidiary Telespazio France has signed five contracts worth totally EUR 86 million to supply space operations services for a further five years to the French space agency CNES and Arianespace at the Kourou Space Centre (French Guiana). Telespazio France will provide operational services for planning, telemetry, trajectory control and telecommunications during space launches from the Kourou base. Telespazio France has also won a contract worth EUR 4 million from the European Space Agency (ESA) for the operational management of the DIANE tracking and telemetry station in French Guiana.
As part of the European GMES programme, the company's subsidiary e-GEOS (80% Telespazio, 20% Italian Space Agency) has been awarded two contracts put out to tender by the European Commission worth a maximum of EUR 9.6 million. e-GEOS, which operates in the Earth observation services sector, will provide the authorities and European and national civil protection bodies with geospatial information and satellite maps of areas affected by emergencies, thereby supporting the management and organisation of the response to disasters.
From the European Space Agency (ESA) Telespazio has acquired a contract to provide the centralised logistics support for the network of European Space Tracking Stations (ESTRACK) as well as the Maintenance and Operations services for the Kourou and Malargüe stations. The network is used by the ESA to manage its satellites in orbit. The contract, which will have a duration of three years, plus an optional extension of two years, is worth a total of around EUR 10 millions.
Telespazio has signed two new contracts with satellite operator INMARSAT. Under the first agreement, Telespazio's Fucino Space Centre will host the first ground station for INMARSAT's new "Global Xpress" telecommunication service. The second contract extends INMARSAT's Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) services, which are provided by the Fucino Space Centre, for a further four years.
Lastly, the company’s subsidiary Telespazio Brasil was awarded a contract worth EUR 2.5 million with Oi, Brazil's largest telephone operator, to supply the satellite back-up network for the Banco do Brasil.