A Thales Alenia Space rendering of Galileo Second Generation. Photo: Thales

Thales Alenia Space signed new contracts with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the ground mission segment for Galileo Second Generation (GSG) and for system engineering activities, and two contracts for cybersecurity. The contracts for ground mission segment and system engineering activities are worth 300 million euros ($333 million) and the cyber awards are worth more than 60 million euros ($67 million). 

Thales is also the prime contractor for six out of 12 satellites of the G2G constellation, and these contracts are on top of those. 

Thales said in a July 20 announcement that the G2G first version of the new ground mission system is scheduled to come into operation on time to support the launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) of the first satellite of this second generation. Thales will be responsible for up-linking the navigation services to the Galileo satellites and providing positioning, navigation & timing to more than 4 billion users worldwide.

Thales is leading a consortium to expand the scope of security monitoring in the G2G system, with automated incident response and network traffic monitoring. Thales has also been tasked with using its cryptography expertise to prepare the system for new threats from quantum computers. 

“These security contracts for Galileo Second Generation will bring Europe a more robust system with better protection from quantum threats — a major challenge for the space industry in the decades ahead — and will draw on the Group’s unparalleled big data expertise to provide more effective security monitoring of the world’s leading satellite positioning system,” said Pierre-Yves Jolivet, vice president of Cyber Solutions for Thales.