Thales Alenia Space has won a European Space Agency (ESA) contract worth 229 million euros ($306.7 million) for the first of five Earth observation satellite satellites for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) project, ESA announced June 18.

ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and Pascale Sourisse, president and CEO of Thales Alenia Space, signed the contract for Sentinel-1 at the International Paris Air Show Le Bourget.

Thales Alenia Space is 67 percent owned by Thales of France, and 33 percent by Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA.