{"id":471120,"date":"2026-05-06T11:05:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/471120\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:05:27","slug":"esa-awards-thales-alenia-space-e26-million-contract-for-lisa-telescopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/471120\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA Awards Thales Alenia Space \u20ac26 Million Contract for LISA Telescopes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA-Awards-Thales-Alenia-Space-E26-Million-Contract-for-LISA-Telescopes.webp\" alt=\"ESA has awarded Thales Alenia Space a \u20ac26.1 million contract to develop six optical telescopes for its \u20ac1 billion LISA mission.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6421 lazyload\"  data- style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 800px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 800\/500;\"\/>Credit: OHB<\/p>\n<p>The European Space Agency has awarded Thales Alenia Space a \u20ac26.1 million contract to develop six optical telescopes for the three spacecraft that will make up ESA\u2019s LISA mission.<\/p>\n<p>Selected as ESA\u2019s third Large-Class mission in July 2017, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will be dedicated to detecting gravitational waves that occur during some of the most significant events in the Universe, such as when two black holes collide. ESA\u2019s Large-Class missions are described by the agency as \u201cEuropean-led flagship missions with a launch cadence of approximately one every decade.\u201d These missions are funded through the agency\u2019s Science Programme with a budget per mission of no more than \u20ac1.05 billion.<\/p>\n<p>ESA selected OHB to develop the mission\u2019s three spacecraft in June 2025, awarding the company a \u20ac839 million contract. Responsibility for the development of the mission\u2019s payload is, according to ESA, a \u201ccollaborative effort between ESA, its member states, and NASA.\u201d As part of that division of responsibilities, on 5 May, ESA awarded Thales Alenia Space the contract to develop the mission\u2019s optical telescopes.<\/p>\n<p>The contract will cover Phase 1 of the telescopes\u2019 development, with work expected to extend over a total of three phases. Thales Alenia Space and its partner, Thales SESO, will be responsible for the development, design, assembly, and testing of the telescopes, which will be made from Zerodur\u00ae, a glass-ceramic material primarily used for precision optics.<\/p>\n<p>Thales Alenia Space\u2019s contributions to LISA go well beyond the mission\u2019s telescopes. Shortly after being tapped to lead the development of LISA\u2019s spacecraft, OHB awarded Thales Alenia Space a \u20ac263 million contract to develop avionics and control software, telecommunications systems, and drag-free and attitude control systems for the three spacecraft. This was followed in January 2026 by a second contract, valued at \u20ac16.5 million, for the mission\u2019s propulsion subsystems. According to a Thales Alenia Space announcement at the time, the contract covered Phase B2 development, with the full contract value expected to rise to \u20ac89.5 million to complete and deliver the subsystems.<\/p>\n<p>With industrial development underway across the spacecraft and payload elements, LISA is being prepared for launch in the next decade. Once complete, all three spacecraft are expected to be launched together aboard an Ariane 6 no earlier than 2035.<\/p>\n<p>        Keep European Spaceflight Independent<\/p>\n<p>Your donation will help European Spaceflight to continue digging into the stories others miss. Every euro keeps our reporting alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: OHB The European Space Agency has awarded Thales Alenia Space a \u20ac26.1 million contract to develop six&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[18,28434,19,17,133,451,70446],"class_list":{"0":"post-471120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-european-space-agency","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-thales-alenia-space"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116527308850160833","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}