Thales Alenia Space and ISS Reshetnev have established a joint venture. The jointly-owned company will initially focus on the production of equipment meeting the most demanding international standards for use on Russian telecommunications satellites. It will then work on the development of new products for satellites, enabling it to more completely address the requirements of both Russian and international markets in the future, where ISS, in collaboration with Thales Alenia Space, has already won several business opportunities.
The new company, incorporated under Russian law and with ISS holding a majority stake, will be based in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. It marks the first phase of the bilateral collaboration targeted by the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two companies in November 2011, during the French-Russian intergovernmental conference in Moscow.
“Our collaboration with Thales Alenia Space is an example of mutually advantageous attitudes. Creating the Joint Venture enabling to manufacture some components of payload domestically, we expect to get an access to new niche in the market of Russia and abroad”, said Nikolay Testoedov, General Designer and General Director of ISS Reshetnev.
This initiative clearly reflects a long-standing commitment of the French (CNES) and Russian (Roskosmos) space agencies; one where the French space industry has been reactive since the 1990s especially through the joint work undertaken by Thales Alenia Space and ISS.
"Today's initiative culminates some 20 years of joint success with our partner ISS and over 20 jointly built satellites," said Jean Loïc Galle, President and CEO of Thales Alenia Space. "It's a major milestone that cements our bonds in a shared, ambitious, pivotal and promising future. We are also very proud of continuing to contribute to the development of the Russian space industry. The partnership with ISS is absolutely a strategic one for Thales Alenia Space. The joint venture we have created today will enable us to assemble, integrate and test telecom satellite equipment that meets the most exacting standards, thus driving a significant increase in our business volume. I am firmly convinced that, through this joint venture, Thales Alenia Space and ISS-Reshetnev will be able to meet our upcoming challenges even more successfully than before."