# Airbus Defence and Space
*commercial . companies*

Space Systems division of Airbus SE, formed 2014 from EADS Astrium, Cassidian, and Airbus Military. Prime contractor for ESA Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-6, and BIOMASS; MWR subcontractor on Sentinel-3. Operates Pleiades Neo (2/4 operational post-Vega-C 2022), Pleiades 1A/1B, SPOT 6/7. Co-owns TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X with DLR via public-private partnership. OneAtlas commercial data platform.

## Specifications
- **last reviewed date**: 2026-05-24
- **country**: France / Germany
- **website**: https://www.airbus.com/en/space
- **operator domains**: ["airbus.com","space-solutions.airbus.com"]
- **founded year**: 2014
- **last verified date**: 2026-05-24
- **verified by**: sw
- **claim status**: unclaimed

## Editorial
Airbus Defence and Space (Airbus DS) is the Space Systems division of Airbus SE, formed in January 2014 through consolidation of EADS Astrium, Cassidian, and Airbus Military. This entry covers the Space Systems perimeter only.[^wikipedia-airbus-ds]

**Government EO programmes**

Airbus DS is the satellite prime contractor on two ESA Copernicus Sentinel missions: Sentinel-2 (multispectral optical constellation)[^esa-s2-facts] and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich (ocean altimetry).[^esa-s6-facts] It is also prime for the ESA Earth Explorer BIOMASS mission (P-band SAR, launched April 2025).[^esa-biomass] On Sentinel-1 it is responsible for the C-band SAR instrument; Thales Alenia Space Italy is the satellite platform prime.[^esa-s1-facts] On Sentinel-3 it built the MWR (microwave radiometer) instrument only, with Thales Alenia Space France as the satellite platform prime (also responsible for OLCI and SRAL).[^esa-s3-facts] Work is split across Toulouse (spacecraft integration), Friedrichshafen, and Stevenage (instruments and subsystems).

**Commercial constellations and data**

Airbus DS owns and operates three commercial optical constellations. Pleiades Neo is the highest-resolution at 0.3 m; four satellites were planned, but Neo 5 and Neo 6 were lost in the December 2022 Vega-C launch failure. Two satellites (Neo 3 and Neo 4) remain operational.[^eoportal-pleiadesneo] Pleiades 1A/1B (0.5 m) and SPOT 6/7 (1.5 m) form the legacy optical archive. TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X are owned and operated by DLR, which retains scientific data rights; Airbus DS holds exclusive commercial exploitation rights for those satellites' data under a public-private partnership with DLR.[^dlr-tsx] The OneAtlas platform aggregates imagery from the Airbus-operated constellations into a subscription and API data service.[^airbus-eo-page]

**Position in the EO-Atlas catalogue**

Airbus DS appears as satellite prime on Sentinel-2, Sentinel-6, and BIOMASS, as instrument-only contributor on Sentinel-1 (C-SAR) and Sentinel-3 (MWR), as commercial-rights holder on TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X, and as operator and data distributor on Pleiades Neo, Pleiades 1A/1B, and SPOT 6/7.[^airbus-eo-page]

---
Source: https://eo-atlas.org/companies/airbus-ds
Maintainer: SpectraWorks B.V. (CC-BY 4.0)