Thales Alenia Space’s new optical integration center. Photo: Thales Alenia Space

[Via Satellite 10-02-2015] Thales Alenia Space has opened its new Selene building in Cannes, which has a footprint of 1,500 square meters, including four separate integration zones for handling four satellites at the same time. The building, for which construction began in October 2014, is designed for the integration and testing of optical observation instruments, and complements Thales Alenia Space’s other facilities in Cannes dedicated to optical observation programs,

The Selene building is the last facet of the Odyssee program, which kicked off in 2008 to expand the Cannes production site to surrounding land made available by the city of Cannes, which signed a long-term lease with Thales Alenia Space.

The production facility is an 8 million euro investment. The investment was largely driven by the growing significance of exports of optical observation satellites for the company.