Airbus Signs $1.7 Billion Contract for Six Metop Weather Satellites

摘要

Airbus Defense and Space on Oct. 16 signed a $1.7 billion contract to build six polar-orbiting meteorological satellites for European governments, a deal in which guaranteeing strict work-share equality between Germany and France was almost as important as the satellite technology involved. For Airbus, the contract for the Metop Second Generation satellites was a kind of revenge match against the same Thales Alenia Space-OHB AG team that had bested Airbus for Europe's third-generation Meteosat geostationary-orbiting satellites. Airbus and Germany protested putting Thales Alenia Space of France rather than Germany's OHB in charge of managing the Meteosat contract, and the German government dragged its heels for months before accepting the European Space Agency's decision.