The United Arab Emirates Armed forces have contracted the Astrium/Thales Alenia Space consortiium to build two reconnaissance satellites. Astrium will be building the main bus/platform of the satellites using its Astrosat 1000 platform which was used for the similar Pleiades French reconnaissance satellite system. The imaging payload will be built by Thales Alenia Space and is speculated to have a resolution of 0.7m or better. The two spacecraft are expected to be launched into orbit in late 2017 and early 2018 respectively. The value of the contract for the two spacecraft is reported to be €800 million ($1.1 billion).
Astrium/Thales Alenia Space consortium win UAE contract for two reconnaissance sats
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