On Tuesday 08 April 2025, ESA Director of Human and Robotic Exploration Daniel Neuenschwander and ALTEC CEO Vincenzo Giorgio, in the presence of Italian Space Agency Science & Research Director Mario Cosmo, signed the agreement to finalize a five-year €61 million contract at the ICE Booth at the 40th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, USA, for the consolidation of Training, Logistics, and Operations Services for ISS and Exploration.

The contract will secure the industrial services required to keep the ISS processes operational for the period 2025-2029 in the areas of Training for Astronauts and Ground Support Personnel (GSP), Integrated Logistics of ESA Hardware, Experiments and Payloads, including warehousing, cargo processing and handling of hardware from / to launch site as well as within Europe, and a set operations support services to prepare and ensure readiness of mission operations.

Since 2015 ALTEC is responsible for providing directly to ESA the Training, Logistics and Operations-Support Services (TLO) for the ISS Columbus Program, coordinating a complex and highly qualified international industrial team, distributed within Europe and the United States.

In 2024 an Open Competition was issued by ESA for the assignment of the services for the period 2025 – 2029 that had been won by ALTEC and its industrial team.

"Today’s signature ceremony paves the way for a new era with the 'Training, Logistics and Operations Support Services for ISS & Exploration 2025-2029' contract with Altec," said Daniel Neuenschwander, Director of Human and Robotic Exploration, ESA. "Once approved, the contract will represent a significant milestone in our efforts to build the future of exploration on the basis of experience from the International Space Station. Altec's proven expertise and dedication to excellence make them an invaluable partner; chosen in open competition. We are excited about the advancements that will result from this collaboration."

The TLO services essentially ensures that everything is ready to meet ESA's objectives on the International Space Station.

• The training service ensures that all involved European ground personnel and the worldwide involved astronauts and cosmonauts are ready and certified to perform the planned tasks. It is mainly performed at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne. It also includes tasks like the basic training of the new astronauts and field analogue astronauts’ campaigns in caves, volcanic or asteroid impact areas, as well as support services to the crew member and their families.
• The logistics service ensures that the HW and the Experiments are available and working in the right moment and the right place on board the ISS, as well as back on ground in the hands of the scientists.

It also includes all associated real-time support to the astronauts for locating and stowing items and for their maintenance. The logistics service is based at ALTEC premises in Turin, including the so-called Engineering Support Centre with flight controllers for real-time support linked with the Columbus Control Centre.

• The operations-support service consists of a variety of activities with the purpose of ensuring the operations, the activities are ready to be executed. It includes for instance procedures management, pre-post-mission experiment base data collection, safety of operations, anomalies status management, mission integration and flight readiness status and certifications. These involve the whole industrial team distributed in Turin, the European Astronaut Centre, the Columbus Control Centre and at ESTEC.

As the Lunar Gateway elements launches are approaching, ESA needs to be prepared for the operations. This new period is therefore not only dedicated to the ISS, but includes TLO services for Gateway and Human Exploration beyond LEO. The activities will mainly focus on the Training preparation at EAC, the Logistics in Turin, but will also include the support to ESA for the Operations processes preparation.

“ALTEC is preparing for the challenge of the new era of human exploration beyond Low Earth orbit, said Vincenzo Giorgio, and the great experience of the ISS TLO services is our launch pad to the Lunar Gateway operations, but also to continue services for the upcoming LEO commercial stations utilization”.