On 18 October 1961, Telespazio was established under the auspices of several Italian organisations, including the
National Research Council (CNR) and the
Post and Telecommunications Ministry,
Italcable and
Rai. During 1964, Telespazio helped create history for its role in facilitating the first television broadcasts, directly from Fucino via the Telstar satellite. On 7 February 2001, Italy's first military communications satellite system, the Telespazio-managed
SICRAL 1, was launched. On 25 July 2003, Telespazio acquired the German Earth observation satellite services specialist
GAF AG. Creation of the joint venture was concurrent with the creation of
Alcatel Alenia Space (now Thales Alenia Space), formed by the merger of two other Alcatel and Finmeccanica (since 2016 rebranded Leonardo-Finmeccanica) space businesses (Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio respectively). During 2007, the
European Commission (EC) approved the transfer to Thales of Alcatel's interests in joint ventures Alcatel Alenia Space (Thales: 67%; Finmeccanica: 33%) and Telespazio (Finmeccanica: 67%; Thales: 33%); this restructuring resulted in the creation of a new space-orientated alliance between Thales and Finmeccanica. Prior to approving the change, the EC had performed an in-depth investigation due to concerns that the transfer may have had a detrimental effect on downstream satellite and subsystem competition. In January 2011, Telespazio acquired the space activities of two Finmeccanica subsidiares, the Italy-based
Elsag Datamat Space and the UK-based
VEGA (the latter was subsequently renamed
Telespazio VEGA UK) for an undisclosed price. On 20 September 2011, a
strike at the company reportedly caused a delay in the launch of an
Ariane 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle. During 2017, Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio formed a partnership with
Seattle-based
Spaceflight Industries to accelerate plans for a
constellation of 60 Earth observation satellites. In the following year,
Orange S.A. teamed up with the firm to provide satellite-based telecommunications to the French military. In September 2019,
Airbus partnered with Telespazio to market military telecommunications services using the future
Syracuse IV satellites. ==See also==