Thales Alenia Space (TAS) is laying groundwork for a small satellite factory in Italy that it hopes will be at the forefront of constellation manufacturing in Europe, bringing the continent closer to mass production capabilities across the Atlantic.
The joint venture between Thales of France and Leonardo of Italy aims to have the “Space Smart Factory” up and running by mid-2025 in Rome, three kilometers from where the company integrates 700-kilogram-plus Galileo navigation satellites in a facility geared for larger spacecraft.
Although the new 21,000-square-meter facility could also be used for large satellites, Massimo Comparini, head of the company’s Italian operations, said the main goal is to churn out a couple of 200-kilogram satellites a week if it can find the customers.
More than 100 million euros ($110 million) is being invested to set up the factory, supported by funds the Italian government set aside for boosting the country’s economy following the pandemic.
Less than a third of this investment is coming from Italy’s National Plan for Recovery and Resilience, Comparini told SpaceNews, with the company stumping up the rest. “It’s quite a large investment,” he said, but “it’s going to boost our competitiveness and our production capacity in the coming years.”
The facility will include 5,000 square meters of clean rooms. That’s a third of what TAS has at facilities in Cannes, France, where it also assembles satellites. However, Comparini said the new plant would incorporate more advanced technologies, and leverage collaborative workspaces to support small and medium-sized businesses that have partnered on satellite projects.
Alongside advanced manufacturing tools using the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence to accelerate production, Comparini said the Space Smart Factory would manage workflow information more efficiently to guard against supply chain disruption.
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