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November 15, 2007 - Ariane 5
Another successful launch for Ariane 5 which launched two satellites during the night of 14-15 November. The first satellite, STAR ONE C1, built by Thales Alenia Space, will be used to transmit TV programmes and telecommunications services. The second satellite, Skynet 5B, was built by Astrium to relay military communications.
As usual, Thales Alenia Space ETCA supplied 21 units with various functions and provided the services of its Kourou maintenance and operations team. Moreover, the company also built 55 EPCs and integrated the feed-tube assembly for the STAR ONE C1 satellite.

October 22, 2007 - New EPC order
Armed with its experience on Chinasat 9, Thales Alenia Space ETCA has received an order for seven type 2G EPCs (200 W).
These EPCs, of the same type as those built for Chinasat9, are for the Palapa-D satellite to be designed by Thales Alenia Space. The EPC's function is to supply electricity to satellite transmitter tubes.
Palapa-D will be launched by a Long March 3B in the second half of 2009. It will replace the Palapa-C2 satellite which will reach the end of its life in 2011.
Based on a Spacebus 4000B3 platform, Palapa-D will offer higher capacity than its predecessor and will allow Indosat clients to offer telecoms services. 

September 21, 2007 - New order: 110 ATB VIRM Cubicles
At the end of last June, Alstom placed an order with Thales Alenia Space ETCA for the fabrication of 110 ATB VIRM Cubicles. These cubicles will be used for the 50 inter-urban trains (VIRM) which Bombardier will supply to the Dutch national railways as of 2008. The ATB is an automatic train protection system which emits a signal if the train driver should miss a speed limit warning thus allowing the system to take control of the train to break and even stop the train in case of an emergency. 

August 6, 2007 - Visit Thales Alenia Space ETCA
Since the beginning of the year, 150 high school and university students have toured the site at Thales Alenia Space ETCA. During their visit, they were given a presentation of the activities performed here and discovered the 40.000 m2 of clean rooms, workshops and offices, etc. Are you a student and would like to visit our enterprise ?
Please send an email to laurence.jados@thalesaleniaspace.com (for groups of a minimum of 10 students).

May 24, 2007 - Belgian première
The first Belgian equipment for Soyouz will soon leave Belgium
Thales Alenia Space ETCA presented on Thursday May 24 - in preview in its installations of Charleroi - the first Belgian model of the equipment intended for the Russian Soyuz launchers of satellites, which will be launched from Kourou, in French Guiana. The Belgian press, the representatives of the ESA, the CNES, Arianespace, and the Belgian political world as well as the Ambassador of Russia in Belgium, were present for the occasion.

February 24, 2007 - ETCA, the only western European company on board the Soyuz launchers
On 26 February 2007, Thales Alenia Space ETCA was present at the official opening of the launch site for the Russian Soyuz launchers in French Guiana.
Thales Alenia Space ETCA is responsible for the safeguard subsystem. The system allows the engines to be shut down if the launcher runs into difficulties. AAS ETCA is also in charge of the test bed and of acceptance testing for the safeguard system.

January 24, 2007 - International meeting on space radiations
From 23 to 25 January 2007, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the RADECS association organized two workshops about space radiations in Louvain-la-Neuve.
These workshops took place with the collaboration of Thales Alenia Space ETCA as well as the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the Centre de Recherches du Cyclotron (CRC) and a few members of the space industry. The first workshop, called "QCA-Day", focused on the results of the study on radiation and tests made within the framework of ESA development contracts. These tests and studies aim at measuring the impact of radiations on electronics and systems used in space. The second workshop focused on the way particles settle on electronic components and on the needs and constraints arising from it. The participants and speakers came from different countries and organizations, including the Japanese space agency (JAXA) and NASA.

January 24, 2007 - 45 business zones in Wallonia connected to high speed network.
A telecommunication infrastructure for 45 business zones in Wallonia has been deployed successfully by Thales Alenia Space ETCA.
In 2005, Thales Alenia Space ETCA was chosen by SOFICO (Wallonia's Corporation for the Complementary Financing of Infrastructures) to provide this infrastructure to 45 priority business zones in Wallonia. This project, launched by the Walloon government, is aimed at supporting SME's and SMI's by offering them a choice of high speed telecommunication services with optic fiber connections, at a competitive price. After this successful development, the first SME's and SMI's are now linked to this optic fiber network. More than 2400 km long, SOFICO's network serves identified business zones in the Hainaut, Namur and Luxembourg provinces. The business zones in the Liège and Brabant Wallon provinces will be finalised soon. Right now, a few service integrators are canvassing the companies in these business zones. A phase of connection of a greater span will start now. All the companies in the 45 business zones will be able to benefit from high-tech telecommunication services.