Arianespace’s Soyuz rocket lifting off from Guiana Space Center on Dec. 19. Photo: Arianespace

Arianespace and the French Center for National Space Studies (CNES) Space Agency revealed that they have signed a launch contract for Argos Néo on a Generic Economical and Light Satellite (ANGELS), the first nanosatellite completely built by French industry.

ANGELS will be launched as an auxiliary payload with the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation (CSG 1) and Characterizing Exoplanet Satellites (CHEOPS) by a Soyuz rocket in 2019 from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. It is jointly financed and developed by the French CNES Space Agency and Nexeya, an industrial group active in the aerospace, defense, energy, rail, and automotive markets.

The satellite will be fitted with a miniaturized Argos Néo instrument, which is 10-times smaller than the equivalent previous-generation device. The instrument collects and determines the position of low-power signals and messages sent by the 20,000 Argos beacons now in service worldwide. Two project teams — CNES and Nexeya for ANGELS, and CNES, Thales Alenia Space and Syrlinks for Argos Néo — are working together on this French space project.