Thales Alenia Space builds satellite to understand Venus, Belgium contributes

Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between the French technology company Thales Group and the Italian company Leonardo, signed a contract for the construction of the satellite Envision on Tuesday with the European space agency ESA at the European space conference in Brussels. The contract has a value of 367 million euros.

“Envision will take five scientific instruments and a radio -scientific experiment on board, which will be performed at the respective space agencies participating in this exciting mission: the Italian space agency (ASI), the American (NASA), the French (CNES), the German Space research and technology center (DLR) and the Belgian Science Policy Center (Belspo) ”, says Thales Alenia Space in a press release on Tuesday.

Year 2031

The launch is planned for November 2031. The mission must provide a general picture of the planet, of the internal core to the high atmosphere. In this way it must be determined how and why Venus and the earth have evolved in a different way, the company says.

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The mission will take place about twenty years after the first European mission to Venus, the Venus Express.

Thales Alenia Space won another contract on Tuesday at the conference, worth 88 million euros. In addition, the company will develop the useful charge of the third satellite of the Copernicus CO2M mission, whereby the emissions of carbon dioxide caused by humans will be followed.