The European Space Agency and Thales Alenia Space today signed a 305 million contract to provide the first Sentinel-3 earth observation satellite, devoted to oceanography and land-vegetation monitoring, as part of the European GMES programme. As prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space is responsible for the satellites design, development and integration.
The contract was signed today in Paris by Volker Liebig, ESA Director of Earth Observation, and Pascale Sourisse, President and CEO of Thales Alenia Space, in the presence of Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General, officials from the European Commission, the French Ministry of Research and Higher Education and Dominique Bussereau, French Secretary of State for Transport at the Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development & Land Management Ministry. Underlining the value of this mission for Europe, Volker Liebig commented: "This satellite is an important element of GMES and will enable Europe to observe important ocean parameters".
Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) aims at delivering environment and security monitoring services and is being led by the European Commission. It is Europes response to the ever-increasing demands of effective environmental policies and is at the same time the European contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
ESA is responsible for the implementation of the GMES Space Component, a package of earth observation missions involving ESA, EU/ESA Member States and other partners. Central elements of this Space Component are the five families of Sentinel missions.
Sentinel-3 will provide crucial data for information services to the European Union and its Member States as part of GMES. The services to be fed data cover areas such as climate change, sustainable development, environmental policies, European civil protection, development aid, humanitarian aid and the European Common Foreign & Security Polic
'/>"/>
| Contact: Bruno Berruti bruno.berruti@esa.int 31-715-654-936 European Space Agency Source:Eurekalert |