PARIS — Astrium Services’ Geo-Information division announced Sept. 19 it will provide data from its optical and radar Earth observation satellites to the commission of the 27-nation European Union (EU) under a three-year contract valued at 17 million euros ($23.5 million).
The deal is part of the commission’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program, which includes investment in European government-owned satellite systems as well as imagery purchases from commercial and non-European government satellites.
Under the contract, Astrium Services will provide data from its Spot 4 and Spot 5 optical satellites, and from its TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X radar spacecraft, all of which are in orbit. The agreement also calls for Astrium to provide imagery from Taiwan’s Formosat-2 satellite, to which the company has access through its Spot Infoterra subsidiary.
The commission will also receive an undisclosed amount of data from the two Pleiades high-resolution optical satellites scheduled for launch in the coming months and financed mainly by the French government, and the medium-resolution Spot 6 and Spot 7 optical satellites that Astrium is building on its own to replace Spot 5.
