Thales Alenia Space has secured the prime contract to develop and build two Sentinel-1 Next Generation satellites for ESA’s Copernicus programme.
The award covers the first tranche of a €700 million contract and places Thales Alenia Space at the centre of Europe’s next synthetic-aperture-radar fleet. Airbus Defence and Space is the main industrial partner and will supply the C-band SAR instrument, while the workshare is spread across Thales sites in Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and France, plus Leonardo for the star trackers. The satellites add AIS payloads for vessel tracking and are designed to improve coverage, resolution and operational continuity versus the current Sentinel-1 generation.
The contract locks in the industrial structure for the programme and moves Copernicus closer to its next maritime surveillance and environmental monitoring step.