Together with Thales Alenia Space CEO Jean-Loïc Galle, former Minister for Economic Affairs Étienne Schneider announced the new centre of excellence in June 2019. (Photo: SIP Archives)

Together with Thales Alenia Space CEO Jean-Loïc Galle, former Minister for Economic Affairs Étienne Schneider announced the new centre of excellence in June 2019. (Photo: SIP Archives)

Two years after being announced at the Paris Air Show by former economy minister Etienne Schneider, the French company Thales Alenia Space has officially launched its centre of excellence in Luxembourg.

"With this new digital centre, Thales Alenia Space plans to develop 'minimum viable products' in relation to its customers, be an anchor for the development of this business sector on a local and regional scale, and actively participate in the innovation ecosystem in Luxembourg," said Thales Alenia Space CEO Jean-Loïc Galle.

That was more than two years ago. In a press release, the ministry of economy and the Luxembourg Space Agency announced on 18 June 2019 that the then economy minister, (LSAP), had signed a letter of intent with the French aerospace giant to create a centre of excellence in Luxembourg.

On 1 September, the French company, which set up its Luxembourg subsidiary in June 2020, made the opening of the centre official in a separate statement. "This new centre, Thales Alenia Space, in Luxembourg, will focus on the development of highly innovative digital solutions for telecommunication, observation and navigation space products. It will leverage big data, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity technologies to meet the challenges of complex satellite systems, while striving for excellence in terms of user experience," it said.

Fourth city of the Digital Factory

"One of the first missions of the centre will be to contribute to the development of the satellite product line Space Inspire by Thales Alenia Space, enabling the reconfiguration of in-orbit telecommunication missions as part of the Novacom II project, which is part of ESA's ARTES research and development programme. The centre's work will also focus on digital twins, digital solutions for better preparation and exploitation of Earth observation data, data enhancement engines, and others."

It should be noted that the Novacom II project has been led since the beginning of September by Frédéric Rouesnel, who has worked for LuxSpace, Luxinnovation – where he was in charge of space, the ministry of economy and the Luxembourg Space Agency.

The Space Inspire product line allows, via software, to permanently reconfigure a satellite according to the needs of the operator's customers. This will be one of the strong points of Luxembourg's future SES-17 satellite, entrusted to Thales Alenia Space.

The Luxembourg structure will follow its digital factory model, already tested since 2017, and its arrival in Montreal with cortAIx and Station F, and now at WeWork Paris and WeWork Singapore.

This article was originally published on . It has been translated for Delano.