7 October 2025 – Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and Leonardo, has today inaugurated its Space Smart Factory in Rome with a ceremony attended by Italian President Sergio Mattarella. The factory – one of Europe’s largest intelligent, digital, reconfigurable manufacturing facilities – is located at the Tecnopolo Tiburtino high-tech innovation hub in Rome. The Space Smart Factory is the concrete result of an investment of over €100 million, partly financed through PNRR funds managed by the Italian Space Agency and by substantial investments from Thales and Leonardo. The new production hub, scheduled to begin operations by year’s end with work on the Sicral 3 satellite for the Italian Defense Ministry, is based at Rome’s Tecnopolo Tiburtino — a center of technological excellence bringing together 150 companies, mostly SMEs, closely integrated with the city and its industrial landscape. Read more