PARIS — Telespazio of Rome will provide the operations and maintenance services for the data-access system to manage Europe’s Copernicus network of environment-monitoring satellites under a contract with the European Space Agency announced April 11.
Under the contract, valued at 7 million euros ($9.6 million) for one year and 19 million euros if it is extended to four years, a Telespazio-led consortium will provide engineering, operation and maintenance services for the Copernicus Space Component Data Access program.
Copernicus is a series of observation satellites providing environmental monitoring. The first satellite made expressly for Copernicus, Sentinel-1A, was launched April 3. Copernicus’ space segment is being managed by ESA for the European Commission, which owns the Copernicus program.
The data-access program will permit users — most Copernicus data are distributed free of charge — to access data sets produced by the different Copernicus satellites.
Airbus Defence and Space, Intecs SpA and Werum GmbH are part of the Telespazio consortium that will perform the work, Telespazio said.
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