PARIS—Telespazio Vega Deutschland will lead a consortium of 19 companies from 10 European nations to develop a common satellite monitoring and control ground system for individual European nations and the 22-nation European Space Agency under a contact announced June 22.

Under the contract with ESA, valued at 18.5 million euros ($21.1 million), Telespazio Vega Deutschland will complete work on a common infrastructure designed to permit standardization of procedures for monitoring all types of space missions, both pre- and post-launch, resulting in lower-cost operations.

Telespazio had won a Phase-B contract for the work in December and will reprise that role as consortium leader for the Phase C/D construction portion.

Peter B. de Selding was the Paris bureau chief for SpaceNews.