Spain, Feb. 13 -- Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has signed a contract with prime contractor Ball Aerospace to supply communications equipment for NASA's NEO Surveyor mission. The main goal of this five-year mission is to advance efforts to defend our planet against near-Earth objects like asteroids and comets, specifically within 50 million kilometers from our planet's orbit. NEO Surveyor will employ an infrared space telescope designed to discover and characterize at least two-thirds of the near-Earth objects more than 140 meters (460 feet) across capable of causing significant damage should they impact the Earth.
Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, NEO Surv...