Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Thales Alenia Space celebrates 40th anniversary of its Toulouse plant

20/09/2023

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Leading innovation at the heart of the world's space ecosystem

Toulouse, September 20, 2023 - Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its plant in Toulouse, France, at an event attended by representatives of the Occitanie regional authority and Toulouse municipal authority, space agencies, partners and stakeholders from the local business ecosystem.

Thales Alenia Space's French headquarters in Toulouse is the largest of its nine industrial plants in Europe. Since opening in 1983, the plant has established itself as a leader in the development and integration of leading-edge space technologies, while contributing to the growth of the local economy. Today, its 2,800+ employees work in altimetry, civil and military communication payloads and systems, satellite navigation, and ground segments.

Thales Alenia Space

In celebrating this 40th anniversary of our Toulouse plant, we're not only honoring our heritage but also the future we're building with our local partners to foster significant technological advances across the satellite industry, said Denis Allard, Toulouse plant Director. Thales Alenia Space's successes and expertise are underpinned by a New Space approach serving innovation and sustainable development. By addressing the most complex technological challenges and positioning itself in the vanguard of future space technologies like 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT) and quantum communications, Thales Alenia Space is maintaining its status as a key space player, while strengthening its ties with the city of Toulouse and contributing to local development.

A communications pioneer: from TDF2 to Space Inspire

Space INSPIRE Thales Alenia Space

Over the last 40 years, Thales Alenia Space's plant in Toulouse has established itself as a center of excellence in satellite communications. Having designed payloads for the TDF2, Eutelsat II and Telecom2/Syracuse2 satellites in the 1980s, and for Intelsat 7 and Intelsat 9 in the 1990s, the plant has already developed more than 300 payloads and is currently designing the ones of Space Inspire (INstant SPace In-orbit REconfiguration), a fully in-orbit reconfigurable product line. Space Inspire's capabilities and flexibility have been recognized by the world's leading operators, with five satellites ordered in 2022.

A trailblazer in European satellite navigation: from EGNOS to Galileo 2nd Generation (G2G)

Galileo Second Generation Thales Alenia Space

The Toulouse plant goes back to the very beginnings of satellite navigation in Europe. Having previously supplied the mission ground segment for the first-generation Galileo constellation, in service since 2016, it won the contract in July this year for the mission ground segment for Galileo 2nd Generation (G2G). The plant is also prime contractor for the current version of EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service), Europe's satellite navigation system that started operation in 2009. This system augments positional fixes from the Global Positioning System (GPS), and is soon set to do so for Galileo. This expertise has also brought Thales Alenia Space a series of successes in export markets, including a satellite navigation system in South Korea and numerous demonstrations in Africa.

It is also in Toulouse that Thales Alenia Space developed the MEOLUT Next solution, a ground station used to operate the COSPAS-SARSAT network's global MEOSAR search-and-rescue service. MEOLUT Next is already helping nations around the world to save lives, in the European Union, United States, Canada, Togo, Vietnam and Thailand. The system can detect and locate distress signals on land, at sea and in the air within a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,107 miles).

Thales Alenia Space in Toulouse has also leveraged its expertise in constellations and navigation systems to address new markets requiring new navigation and geolocation capabilities, such as Kineis, the first French constellation dedicated to the Internet of things (IoT), and Omnispace, for which the first two nanosatellites were orbited in 2022.

Pioneering satellite altimetry for Earth observation: from TOPEX/Poseidon to SWOT

SWOT Thales Alenia Space/Imag[IN]

Toulouse plant is a world leader in satellite altimetry for Earth observation. Since the Poseidon altimeter developed jointly with the French space agency CNES for missions like TOPEX/Poseidon, marking the advent of precision altimetry, Thales Alenia Space has become the gold standard in this field with the Jason series of satellites in partnership with NASA, the Poseidon-4 digital altimeter on the European Space Agency's Sentinel-6 satellite, the SIRAL 2 and AltiKa altimeters, and the SWIM wave spectrometer. More recently, the French-U.S. SWOT satellite (Surface Water and Ocean Topography), launched in late 2022, is revolutionizing modern oceanography and land surface hydrology with its ability to detect ocean features at ten times higher resolution than current technologies.

The Toulouse plant currently contributes to the Copernicus program, for which it is developing the IRIS radar altimeter for the CRISTAL mission and the wide-swath and NADIR altimeters for Sentinel-3 New Generation.

An innovation incubator and a New Space approach

Space Business Catalyst Thales Alenia Space/Laurent Barranco

R&D and innovation are integral to Thales Alenia Space's development strategy in Toulouse. Since 2014, Thales Alenia Space has deployed a pioneering approach centered on its Innovation Cluster, complementing its R&D efforts. This initiative has fostered disruptive intrapreneurship projects like Space Edge Computing in partnership with Microsoft, and partnerships with more than 700 startups including local firms Kin
LINK: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/space/press_release/thales-al...
See more stories from thales

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

01/04/2026

DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION

January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...

26/03/2026

Phantom C-Series High-Speed Cameras Set a New Standard for Automotive Crash and Safety Imaging

Wayne, N.J., March 26, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the latest product li...

25/03/2026

In The Hot Seat: The Art of Directing a Premier League Match

Live match directors Sarah Cheadle (Sky Sports), Rob Levi (TNT Sports), and Andrew Swift (BBC Sport) sit down with the Premier League's Rachel Nightingale t...

25/03/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Kyle Maier, St. Bonaventure University

The senior from Upstate New York is manning the mic while also interning for the athletic department's sports-information team In the live-sports-video ind...

25/03/2026

NAB 2026: Synamedia Launches Edge Watermarking Solution, Marks 10 Years of ContentArmor

Synamedia has announced ContentArmor Edge Watermarking, a server-side solution t...

25/03/2026

SES Taps K2 Space to Build meoSphere MEO Satellite Network

SES has announced meoSphere, a medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite network targeted for operation by 2030. The first phase will pair SES-developed software-defin...

25/03/2026

Reuters and TVU Networks Begin Satellite-to-IP Migration for Live News Distribution

TVU Networks is working with Reuters on a phased migration from satellite to a c...

25/03/2026

Nielsen Names Three Senior Hires in Sports, Advertising, and Publishing Roles

Nielsen has announced three senior appointments. Seth Ladetsky has been named Head of Global Sports. Trevor Fellows will lead Nielsen's advertiser and agenc...

25/03/2026

Anoki and Amagi Bring Scene-Level Intelligence to In-Content CTV Ads

Anoki and Amagi have launched In-Scene Ads powered by Anoki ContextIQ across Amagi's portfolio of in-content ad formats for Free Ad-supported Streaming TV (...

25/03/2026

NAB 2026: Arkona to Unveil BLADE//planner and Platform Updates

Arkona Technologies will announce a series of enhancements to its BLADE//runner platform at NAB 2026 (Booth C.1808). The updates focus on usability and workflow...

25/03/2026

San Diego Padres Partners With Daktronics to Enhance Petco Park

Daktronics has installed two tower displays and a video wall in the Lexus Club at Petco Park in San Diego ahead of the 2026 season. Continuing to improve the ...

25/03/2026

NAB 2026: MultiDyne Marks 50th Anniversary

MultiDyne Video & Fiber Optic Systems is celebrating its 50th anniversary as NAB Show 2026 approaches. The company was founded in 1976 by Vincent Jachetta, an N...

25/03/2026

NAB 2026: IPC to Debut with One Connect Intercom Platform and New One Link Keypanels

IPC, a provider of integrated communication solutions, will make its NAB 2026 de...

25/03/2026

ESPN Tops 2026 Sports Emmy Nominations With 63 Nods

Live production categories were led by NBC, FOX, and ESPN's NFL coverage...

25/03/2026

Atlanta Braves and Spectrum Reach Multiyear Distribution Agreement for BravesVision

The Atlanta Braves and Spectrum have announced a multiyear distribution agreemen...

25/03/2026

The AI Doc Asks the Question No One Wants to Answer

(L-R) Charlie Tyrell and Daniel Roher attend The AI Doc: Or How I Became An Apocaloptimist Premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre ...

25/03/2026

Kelsey Lu and Savanah Leaf Lean Into the Emotional Core of Running To Pain' in Episode Three of Directed By'

Directed By, Spotify's documentary-style series that pulls back the curtain ...

25/03/2026

BTS and Spotify Bring ARIRANG' to Top Fans in New York City

BTS is so back., This week, the global pop superstars took the stage at New York City's Pier 17 for their first U.S. performance in four years. Part of Spo...

25/03/2026

Step Into Sound at Our New Spotify Listening Lounge in London

How you listen can shape what you hear. That's the idea behind the new Spotify Listening Lounge, an acoustic space at our London headquarters purpose-built ...

25/03/2026

Iconic Instruments launch Transport Vintage Tape

Tape effects taken to the extreme The latest release from New York-based developer Iconic Instruments is said to accurately recreate the saturation and comp...

25/03/2026

Sonuscore introduce Fantasy Vocal Phrases

Launched alongside new Vocal Phrases bundle Sonuscore's latest release has been designed specifically for composers working on fantasy TV, film and game...

25/03/2026

Steinberg unveil Nuendo 15

Latest update now live The latest version of Steinberg's post-production-focused DAW has just arrived, and comes packed with new dialogue editing, sound...

25/03/2026

Rohde & Schwarz joins FormFactor's MeasureOne partner program

Rohde & Schwarz joins FormFactor's MeasureOne partner program FormFactor and Rohde & Schwarz advance their partnership for on-wafer RF component character...

25/03/2026

L3Harris, RFTEQ Sign Agreement to Advance Sovereign Electronic Warfare Capability in Australia

L3Harris Technologies and RFTEQ Pty Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding to ...

25/03/2026

L3Harris to Provide Autonomous Underwater Capability for US Navy Submarines

L3Harris delivers combat-ready Torpedo Tube Launch and Recovery system, which deploys and retrieves Iver4 900 autonomous underwater vehicles through submarine t...

25/03/2026

Nielsen Names New Senior Leaders Supporting Sports, Advertising and Publishing Clients

The company expands leadership team under Chief Revenue Officer Amilcar Perez S...

25/03/2026

Stable TV Viewership in Poland in February as Warner Bros. Discovery Retains Top Spot

Winter Olympic Games Opening Ceremony features in top 10 programmes of the month...

25/03/2026

Mediaproxy to Show Upgrades to LogServer at 2026 NAB Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

Hitomi transforms production synchronisation with the lau...

Providing wide view timing visibility across the entire production chain...

25/03/2026

Bitfocus showcases complete control at NAB Show 2026

Continuing development drives advances in security, availability, access and connectivity...

25/03/2026

Caudalie Paris HQ elevates brand experience with INFiLED...

Caudalie, the renowned French cosmetics brand, has unveiled a state-of-the-art 200-seat auditorium at its new headquarters in the historic Marais district of ce...

25/03/2026

Telestream Unlocks Adobe-Centric Media Pipeline and Strea...

Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, today announced expanded integration with Adobe Premiere, Adobe Media Encoder (AME), and Frame.io, d...

25/03/2026

Marshall Electronics Showcases New Feature Rich CV320 and...

Marshall Electronics is expanding its lineup of high-performance POV cameras designed for broadcast, live production and professional AV applications with the d...

25/03/2026

OOONA Achieves TPN Gold Star Shield - the Highest Level o...

OOONA, a global provider of professional management and production tools for the media localization industry, announced today that it has been awarded the TPN G...

25/03/2026

Gray Media to Simulcast 2026 Atlanta Braves Home Opener

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

2026 NAB Show Exhibitor Insight: Appear

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

Deepfakes Vulnerable to AI Fingerprint Hacks, Study Finds

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

SipMX launches at NAB Show 2026 to democratize media orch...

SipRadius, specialists in secure, low-latency media transport, will drive innovation and interoperability still further with the launch of the SipMX Alliance at...

25/03/2026

QuickLink to Showcase StudioPro Video Production Ecosyste...

QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote contribution solutions, will showcase its award-winning StudioPro ecosystem at The 2...

25/03/2026

Alfalite returns to NAB Show alongside FOR-A showcasing L...

Alfalite, the only European manufacturer of LED screens, will once again be present at NAB Show, the leading global event for the broadcast, media and entertain...

25/03/2026

First Time Exhibitor IPC Introduces One Link Keypanels fo...

PC, a leading provider of integrated communication solutions, will make its NAB 2026 Show debut in Booth C 3341. The company will highlight the newly branded On...

25/03/2026

LTN showcases satellite-to-IP migration solutions for cha...

Open video transport network simplifies satellite transition with new partnerships and global reach as spectrum auction nears LTN will demonstrate how its purp...

25/03/2026

Leader to present full suite of advanced Test and Measure...

Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics, will present the full range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix T&M solutions at the NAB Show, which takes pl...

25/03/2026

MNC Software Appoints Heartland Video Systems as North Am...

MNC Software, a global leader in network management and operational support systems tailored to the broadcast and media industry, today announced the appointmen...

25/03/2026

Samsung Launches Shoppable TV Experience with Amazon

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

Gray Media to Simulcast 2026 Atlanta Braves to Home Opener

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...