Italian space agency ASI has awarded Alenia Spazio the contract to begin full-scale development of the €1.15 billion ($1.22 billion) Cosmo-SkyMed system of high-resolution Earth observation satellites, principally for environmental monitoring of the Mediterranean region. The Italian company leads a consortium including Laben and Galileo Avionica. The first of four synthetic-aperture radar satellites will be launched in 2005 and the constellation will be completed in 2007.
Source: Flight International