(Reuters) - Thales Alenia Space, a French-Italian joint venture between Thales and Leonardo, will invest over 100 million euros ($107.15 million) to set up a Space Smart Factory at the Tecnopolo Tiburtino hub in Rome.
The project to build an all-digital factory for the production of satellites is co-funded by the Italian Space Agency through Italy's post-pandemic recovery funds, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
"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." the note read, adding Rome's plant will be one of the largest digital and reconfigurable facilities of its kind in Europe.
Thales Alenia Space is jointly controlled by Thales, with a 67% stake, and Leonardo, with the remaining 33% stake.
($1 = 0.9333 euros)
(Alessia Pé, editing by Kirsten Donovan)