November 9, 2023 – Thales Alenia Space unveiled its project to build the Space Smart Factory, one of the largest digital and reconfigurable facilities of its kind in Europe. The facility will form part of a system of interconnected space factories in Italy, employing advanced technologies to build satellites of different sizes for various fields and applications. Over €100 million is being invested in the Space Smart Factory, including funding from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) through the PNRR. This new state-of-the-art facility will be located at Rome’s technology hub, the Tecnopolo Tiburtino, which already houses 150 companies, mostly small and medium enterprises. Designed by EOS S.r.l., the factory will be built by CBRE | Hitrac, a global leader in critical infrastructure technologies and services spanning the full lifecycle of advanced technology systems. The Space Smart Factory will employ automation and digital processes to offer high production capacity for advanced satellites, both in the microsatellite and small satellite sector, including the PLATiNO and Nimbus satellite families, and for quick turnaround of innovative, modular, high-performance platforms for high-revisit constellations. Featuring state-of-the-art digital technologies, the Space Smart Factory can be reconfigured to suit different production requirements. It will be equipped with highly versatile and flexible clean rooms to support integration and testing of a wide range of satellites of different type and purpose such as Earth-Observation, Navigation, and Communications.