The 322 million euros contract will see TAS take the reins of Esa’s “dark explorer”, Euclid.
Euclid will launch in 2020 and look deep into the cosmos for clues to the nature of dark energy and dark matter. The TAS contract, which will be signed in the coming weeks, completes the sourcing of the two major elements that make up Euclid. A contract to build the payload module, which will hold the 1.2 million telescope and two instruments, has already been awarded to Europe's other big space company, Astrium.