Insider Brief
- ESA and ALTEC have signed a €61 million contract to provide training, logistics, and operational support for the International Space Station and future exploration missions from 2025 to 2029.
- The contract includes astronaut training in Cologne, logistics operations in Turin, and mission support services involving ESA sites across Europe.
- It also extends to preparations for Lunar Gateway operations and commercial spaceflight, including potential training for private astronauts.
- Image: Vincenzo Giorgio, ALTEC; Mario Cosmo, ASI; Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA (LinkedIn)
The European Space Agency (ESA) and Italian aerospace firm ALTEC have signed a €61 million contract to provide five years of operational support, logistics, and training services for the International Space Station and future deep space missions. The agreement was formalized at the 40th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, with ESA’s Director of Human and Robotic Exploration Daniel Neuenschwander and ALTEC CEO Vincenzo Giorgio signing the deal in the presence of Italian Space Agency official Mario Cosmo.
The contract, which covers the period from 2025 to 2029, will ensure continued support for ESA’s crewed spaceflight operations, while also laying the groundwork for the agency’s expanding role in NASA’s Lunar Gateway project and other exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), according to a LinkedIn post computer-translated into English.
“Today’s signing paves the way for a new era with the contract ‘Training, Logistics and Operations Support Services for ISS & Exploration 2025-2029’ with Altec,” said Neuenschwander, ESA’s Director of Human and Robotic Exploration. “Once approved, the contract will represent a significant milestone in our efforts to build the future of exploration based on the experience gained from the International Space Station. ALTEC’s proven expertise and dedication to excellence make it an invaluable partner, selected through a public tender. We are excited about the progress this collaboration will bring.”
The contract consolidates services that ALTEC has been delivering since 2015, coordinating a transatlantic team responsible for ensuring mission readiness. In 2024, ESA issued a competitive tender for the next phase of services, which ALTEC and its industrial partners won.
The agreement covers three major service areas. Training services prepare astronauts and ground personnel for space missions and are primarily conducted at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne. These include routine certification, basic training for new astronauts, and field exercises in environments such as caves and asteroid impact zones.
The logistics component, based at ALTEC’s Turin facility, ensures that ESA hardware and experiments are delivered, stored, and maintained for both space and ground operations. This includes real-time astronaut support and coordination with the Columbus Control Centre.
The third pillar is operations support, which covers mission preparation activities like managing procedures, analyzing anomalies, certifying readiness, and ensuring safety compliance. These tasks involve close collaboration between ESA sites in Germany, the Netherlands, and ALTEC’s Italian headquarters.
As Europe prepares for its role in the Lunar Gateway — a NASA-led space station to orbit the Moon — the contract also includes expanded services for exploration beyond LEO. According to Giorgio, ALTEC is also developing agreements to train commercial astronauts, including those from missions led by companies like Axiom Space.
“ALTEC is preparing for the challenge of the new era of human exploration beyond low Earth orbit,” said Giorgio, “and the extensive experience of ISS TLO services is our launch pad for Lunar Gateway operations and for continuing services for the upcoming use of commercial LEO stations.”
Share this article:
