Space agencies are the pioneers and protagonists driving the technology developments required for the satellites and systems designed to meet the economic, scientific and practical challenges facing our planet.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is providing its support to the European Commission in leading the Copernicus Earth-observation programme and the industrial development of Europe’s EGNOS and Galileo satellite navigation systems, and has invested more than €300 million—7% of its budget—in telecommunications and integrated applications.

Telespazio France is actively involved in operating the EGNOS and Galileo programmes—through the ESP and GSOP contracts—on behalf of the European GNSS Agency (GSA) and in providing operational support for the payloads on the Copernicus programme’s Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 satellites—through the PDGS contract with ESA.

The French space agency CNES is a pioneer in Europe, playing a key role in these European programmes and through the Guiana Space Centre (CSG), as well as in national programmes like the initial TELECOM series of satellites and the SPOT optical Earth-observation satellites, and bilaterally with the United States, Russia, Japan and India, to name a few of its international partners.

As a historic operator of satellite systems tasked with maintaining all associated networks, Telespazio France has been working with CNES for several decades to:

• Operate technical facilities at the CSG in Kourou
• Deploy and operate satellite communications links between the CSG and most of the stations in the launcher telemetry and tracking network
• Maintain the ground station network and provide support for stationkeeping and mission operations for most of the satellites operated by CNES from its Toulouse Space Centre (CST)

"From Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, Telespazio France has been involved in the launch of every Ariane, Soyuz and Vega vehicle."
Jérôme de Bailliencourt, Chief Operations Officer, Telespazio France

Telespazio is the partner of choice supporting the deployment and operation of European space agencies’ systems.

To support the development and operation of these institutional programmes, Telespazio France’s expert software engineers are conceiving data portals—such as ISIS, ngEO, EOLI and THEIA—and associated applications for agencies and research laboratories.

Infrastructure through-life support and operations

Through-life support (TLS) is crucial to assure the safety and availability of space infrastructures. And being able to detect technical anomalies quickly and remedy them effectively is vital.

To meet this strategic need, Telespazio France operates and maintains space infrastructures for its institutional and private customers in France and Europe.

Telespazio France has been working with CNES and Arianespace in France and French Guiana for more than 30 years.