Payment milestones have to be invoiced when reaching the achievements related to the specific milestones and as defined in the Milestone Payment Plan included in the contract. Each payment milestone is broken down to the amounts that pertain to each member of the Project team. Project Team members have to issue a specific invoice for the part of their competence. Subcontractors have to submit their invoices to the Prime contractor. The Prime contractor approves the invoices and submits them to ESA as specified in the contract.

In principle, the first (advance) payment and the final payment are fixed. The remaining payments can be proposed by the Tenderer with respect to dates and amounts, but should take into account a balance between expenditures and payments and should be related to achievements (conclusion of work packages, development of hardware/software, reviews, etc).

External services cover services such as hire of facilities, computer services, manpower services (e.g. consultancy), plating of parts, services for procurement of HIREL parts etc. The costs for these should be shown on the PSS A2 form of the Prime Contractor under Other Cost Elements Point 3.7 and further detailed on Exhibit.

The contact details of all national delegations from ESA Member States can be found on the National Delegations page.

For the purpose of supporting contractual activities in the ARTES Programme Lines, the Agency can provide, on a best effort basis and free of charge, access to a pool of Technical Assets for use by different projects. These technical assets include DVB-RCS Internet Access, Satellite Capacity as well as Access to ESA's DVB Uplink facilities and Local Area Network.

The ARTES online Satcom Training System is free of charge and offers three levels of knowledge, from basic information for non-technical personnel to advanced for expert graduate engineers who need to expand their knowledge outside of their fields. Each level contains tutorials on SATCOM Technologies, System and Services, Communication Link, Space Segment, Networking and Earth Segment. These categories are further divided into more detailed specialist areas and include some exercises at the end.

By registering for a username and password on the ARTES website, not only do you get access to documentation but also you can opt to receive our monthly ARTES newsletter.

'About TIA' and 'About ARTES' in the left side navigation bar give you a concise overview of the activities of the directorate.