Brussels – Telespazio, a subsidiary of Leonardo – by means of Spaceopal, a joint venture with DLR GfR of the German Space Agency – was awarded a contract with a value of up to 1.5 billion euro to manage Galileo, the European satellite navigation system, which is officially starting its initial services today. Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and Leonardo, has signed contracts for 180 million euro. The first contract will see Spaceopal as manager for 10 years, as “Galileo System Operator”, managing the entire Galileo system and its performance, in particular with regard to operations, system control and maintenance, security and service management. (9Colonne)
