Space Factory 4.0. From Thales Alenia Space to Sitael and Argotec, Italy’s answer to the constellation challenge

The Franco Italian company has inaugurated its new facility in Rome: digitalization and robotics will enable the production of large and small satellites, up to 100 per year. Italy aims for leadership in the manufacturing of next generation orbital assets.

BY EMILIO COZZI

The first satellites to come out of Thales Alenia Space’s new Space Factory 4.0 will be the Sicral 3 for the Italian Defense, the second-generation Galileo satellites, and the new systems of the Copernicus program, Rose-L and Cimr. They will inaugurate a long series that promises to reach up to 100 satellites per year, particularly small, lightweight models designed to be launched in constellations.

The facility inaugurated on Via Tiburtina will serve as the hub of a new way of producing space technology. This includes satellites, but not only: alongside them, everything from photovoltaic cells to qualification test systems will be built. The ideal setup of Space Factories 4.0, co-financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr) through a public-private partnership, does not envision isolated centers of excellence, but rather nodes in a network aiming to become a leader in the manufacturing of the new space economy.

A Change of Paradigm

Key words: digital and robotics. These will take shape in process automation, digital twins, and virtual and augmented reality to model technologies and workflows, enabling significant cost savings.

This is how the company tackles what, until recently, was considered an insurmountable obstacle: production pace. Smallsats weighing up to 300 kilograms make up a substantial share of the global market. In Italy, Thales Alenia Space (a joint venture between Thales, with 67%, and Leonardo, with 33%) will be able to produce up to two per week in its new facility. This is what the commercial market demands. To this must be added the traditional and solid institutional clients, who also rely on satellites weighing several tons. Falling into this category are the first examples mentioned above: Sicral 3, the Copernicus Earth observation satellites, and the Galileo navigation satellites.

To sustain this pace, Thales Alenia Space’s Space Factory is equipped with “modular clean rooms” and, thanks to “the use of digital techniques […] it can be reconfigured according to production needs, enabling the integration and testing of a wide range of satellites across different classes and applications, from Earth observation, navigation, and space telecommunications to automated and reusable vehicles and In Orbit Servicing demonstration technologies,” as stated in the company’s press release.

All this is aimed at reducing the so called time to market, the interval between order and delivery. In the space sector, this has often been a bottleneck, until a shift in mindset took place. In practical terms, this means focusing on modularity, reducing system redundancy, and using miniaturized, commercially available components to increase both production speed and output.

A National Network

The goal is to build an integrated system, with units that communicate with each other and work together. In Thales Alenia Space’s new facility, a concrete example is the Jointlab, designed to host “a plurality of functions aimed at training new professionals in the field of space disciplines and developing innovative ideas and products in partnership with SMEs, start-ups, suppliers, industrial partners, and research ecosystem centers.”

Thanks to Pnrr funding, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) will retain “ownership of half of the infrastructure, which will therefore be available to the entire industrial community, including small and medium enterprises or start-ups that do not have the financial capacity to undertake an investment of this kind, but that will still be able to benefit from the services offered.”

Many and Small, for the Constellations of the Future

It is no secret that the focus is on satellite constellations, in order to keep pace with the major powers (primarily the United States and China) that are using them to consolidate their presence in orbit. This was recently reaffirmed by European leaders on the topic, most notably Commissioner for Space Andrius Kubilius. Italy has been able to invest with this perspective and intends to position itself as a reference point for building new strategic satellite communication infrastructures (essentially competitors to Starlink) and also for European space defense.

It is no coincidence that the other Space Factories in the national plan are those of Argotec (near Turin) and Sitael (in Mola di Bari), both globally significant players in the small satellite segment.

It is worth noting that thanks to an investment of 20 million euros, of which more than a third came from the Space Factory 4.0 program, Cesi, the Italian Electrotechnical Experimental Center, has increased its production capacity in Milan by 300 percent, introducing five new evaporators and a MOCVD reactor for advanced semiconductor growth. In the coming months, the inauguration of Cira’s (the Italian Aerospace Research Center) satellite acoustic testing facility in the province of Caserta is also expected.

Different actors with a common goal: to remain relevant where space trends are heading.