Airbus Defence and Space has signed a feasibility study contract with CNES, the French space agency, for future French space-based civil and military Earth observation systems.

This contract was announced by CoSpace, the joint government-industry committee on space, which met in Paris on 11 September 2015, in the presence of Emmanuel Macron, Minister for the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister of Defence, and Thierry Mandon, Minister of State for Higher Education and Research, along with representatives of the ministries concerned.

“If this work was given the green light, it’s primarily because the service provided by the Pleiades satellites, designed and built by Airbus Defence and Space, has been unanimously recognised as exceptional. The users praise the quality of this dual system and its innovations, more particularly the agility of the satellites, which has made it possible to produce unprecedented imaging, especially in 3D. This contract is crucial for Airbus Defence and Space, the world’s leading exporter of Earth observation satellites,” said François Auque, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space France and Head of Space Systems.