PARIS — French defense and aerospace contractor Thales Group on Feb. 24 said revenue from its space business, mainly its 67 percent ownership of hardware builder Thales Alenia Space and 33 percent share of satellite services provider Telespazio, rose “very slightly” in 2010 but booked multiple large orders.
Thales Alenia Space reported revenue in 2009 of 2.05 billion euros ($2.94 billion).
Thales did not specify the space division revenue or profit but said that satellite orders were responsible for a majority of the contracts valued at more than 100 million euros that Thales booked in 2010. These include the 81 Iridium Next mobile communications satellites, the eight-satellite O3b broadband constellation, the optical imager for France’s next-generation military surveillance satellites, Turkey’s Gokturk optical space surveillance system and work on Gasprom Space System’s next two Yamal telecommunications satellites.
Thales said the space division’s pretax profit, which was 5.5 percent of revenue in 2009, “remained stable overall” in 2010.
