PARIS, July 30 Reuters Europe39;s Airbus unveiled sharply lower secondquarter profits on Tuesday as the cost of investing in higher jetliner production, coupled with largely preannounced charges in its Space Systems business, outweighed higher revenue.

The world39;s largest planemaker said adjusted operating profit fell by more than half to 814 million euros 879.7 million in the quarter as revenue edged up to 15.995 billion euros.

It also took a charge of 989 million euros on forward losses in its space business, exceeding the estimate of about 900 million euros it gave with a profit warning last month.

Profits still exceeded analysts estimates, who according to a survey complied by the company were on average expecting secondquarter adjusted operating income of 699 million euros on revenue of 15.822 billion euros.

The charges bring to just under 1.6 billion euros the amount written off Airbus39;s balance sheet in just over five months to reflect a new audit of potential losses on key communications and navigation satellite in its troubled Space Systems business.

I won39;t take my eyes off the case before it is fixed, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told analysts.

Industry sources say much of the newly identified risk is accumulated in the OneSat satellite project and EGNOS, a system designed to improve accuracy of existing navigation signals.

Airbus is working on a review of space activities as it discusses potential alliances with France39;s Thales and Italy39;s…