THE CUSTOMER MAGAZINE OF THE OHB GROUP Ten years in orbit: both SAR-Lupe and Back to the future: Dr Fritz Merkle Start-up: flexible access to space, Columbus recently celebrated import- explains in an interview why OHB has launchers and their optimisation are ant anniversaries. its roots in NewSpace. part of our core business. Groundbreaking: OHB’s successful arrival in GEO Contents // 03 PUBLISHING DETAILS CONTENTS Published by OHB SE, Unternehmenskommunikation Karl-Ferdinand-Braun-Straße 8 28359 Bremen Tel.: +49 (0)421 2020-8 Fax: +49 (0)421 2020-700 www.ohb.de Editorial team Günther Hörbst // OHB SE, V.i.S.d.P., Julia Riedl // OHB System AG, Sabine von der Recke // OHB SE, Danela Sell // PR & Redaktion Dear Reader, Cover INTERVIEW 04 ESA (Earth), OHB / CCMeyer (satellite) These days, space systems are an essential part of our daily lives. Dr Fritz Merkle, Member of the Board at OHB SE, spoke to the Whilst we may not always be aware of this, we all heavily depend Head of Communications at OHB, Günther Hörbst, about where Images upon the services that satellites provide. Quite simply, we cannot the company has come from and where it is heading. AntwerpSpace 09 shape our future without space technology. This may only be dawn- Bettina Conradi 02,04 ing on the general public, but it has long been clear in our minds at NEWS 08 ESA 15, 19, 20 the OHB Group. A selection of reports from companies in the OHB Group. ESA / AOES 28 ESA / P. Carril 19 This future will be defined by a huge wave of digitalisation moving HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT 12 ESA / CNES / Arianespace 23 at a tremendous pace. The rising torrent of data that defines our The ESA celebrates Columbus: the European module docked onto ESA / S. Corvaja 24 private and working lives will not abate: what was uncharted terri- the ISS ten years ago. As a trailblazer for the European research programme, ESA / Donges SteelTec 11 tory yesterday is a hotbed of value creation and innovation today. OHB also has cause to celebrate. ESA / Foster & Partner 08 Precise, reliable and independent data are vital for telecommuni- ESA / NASA 15 cations, positioning and navigation. However, we cannot neglect SECURITY & RECONNAISSANCE 16 Sara Lünemann 25 the environment in the process and this is something that the OHB celebrates SAR-Lupe: the reconnaissance system has now been LuxSpace 09, 11 public is vehement about: the next industrial revolution must be in service for 10 years. Its successor, SARah, is also developed by OHB. NASA 14, 18 clean and sustainable. NASA:2Explore. 12 EARTH OBSERVATION & SCIENCE 18 NASA / JPL-Caltech SwRI MSSS G. Eichstädt 28 Our space applications support and advance the digital transition. The largest satellites ever to be built by OHB are those OHB Italia 06 They facilitate reliable communication and navigation. They ob- of the Meteosat Third Generation. As of 2021, they are set OHB System 17 (2x), 22, 27 (Hans Thiele) serve and measure the changes in the Earth and thereby enable us to revolutionise weather forecasting in Europe. OHB / CCMeyer 10 (2x), 16, 17, 21 (2x), 22, 26, 28 to protect our environment. We engage in space technology on prin- OHB Sweden 10 ciple for the benefit and utility of humankind; in short, TELECOMMUNICATIONS 20 Danela Sell 11 With the SmallGEO and the success of the first satellites in the product line, Shutterstock 07, 29 we.create.space. the OHB Group has successfully established itself in geostationary orbit. Swedish National Space Board SNSB 05 Best regards, NAVIGATION 22 Concept Marco Fuchs OHB has now been commissioned to produce a total of 34 satellites Danela Sell & Sara Lünemann for the European navigation system Galileo. The original brief was to secure an order for “at least two” ... Layout Sara Lünemann // Konzept & Kreation SPACE TRANSPORTATION 24 Today, more than ever before, the focus is on flexible access to space. Translation For the companies in the OHB Group, too, tailored launch services are all-important. Synonym Translations EXPLORATION & SCIENCE 26 Proofreading Is there life on Mars? Why is the universe expanding at an ever-increasing rate? Textgärtnerei OHB is also involved in the second part of the ExoMars mission as well as numerous other exciting scientific missions. Printed by Stürken Albrecht FACTS & FIGURES 29 04 // Interview Interview // 05 Back to the future OHB began pursuing the NewSpace approach more than 20 years ago. It had its big break - through with the concept of building satellites for constellations in a significantly smaller size. Dr Fritz Merkle, member of the Management Board of OHB SE, explains in an interview with OHB Head of Communications Günther Hörbst where the company has come from and where it is heading. NewSpace is all the rage. So where does that the coming years. We have to play a bigger role in put ‘Old Space’ and where does OHB stand in this shift towards the commercial. Currently, relation to both? institutional contracts make up around 75 percent Fritz Merkle: NewSpace emerged in recent years of our order volume. We will see a shift in this and without there ever having been an ‘Old Space’ as OHB will work towards benefiting from this trend. such. But the idea behind NewSpace is a very applications-driven one. Indeed, this is the exact What are OHB’s main objectives in this area? approach that OHB took 30 years ago when it We are looking closely at small satellites, which The first mission to be developed satellites for specific applications. In will complement and augment our large satellites realised with OHB that respect, OHB was embracing the principle of in terms of concept. Since it is better to work on Sweden‘s InnoSat today’s NewSpace during the days of ‘Old Space’. small satellites in smaller working groups, this is platform (under 50 our objective mainly in the subsidiaries in Luxem- kilogram class) is the To go one step further: how does a company bourg, Sweden and Italy. scientific mission MATS. like OHB preserve and retain the old while embarking on the new? Can you give us an example? This is the challenge we’re facing. OHB promoted Triton-X in Luxembourg, which is being developed the NewSpace principle more than 20 years ago by in three different sizes. Innosat in Sweden. Then building much smaller satellites to form constel- there’s Eaglet in Italy, a satellite based on the lations. This presents a challenge for traditional CubeSat concept, with dimensions of 10 x 10 x 30 satellites, especially for the large institutional sat- centimetres. ellites in communications, telecommunications and navigation. New technologies and materials What will Eaglet be used for? are being developed for these smaller microsatel- This satellite will be used for Earth observation. lites. Naturally, this has an enormous impact on Though its resolution will be slightly lower, it will the traditional satellites. be the maximum that is physically possible for a satellite of its size. Such satellites complement Space technology is becoming increasingly the product range that includes EnMap and Earth commercial. But OHB’s core business is still observation. heavily reliant on institutional contracts. How can the company continue to benefit from both What role do the large programmes play in this the old institutional and the new commercial? strategy? Space technology originated as an institutional They are the heart of satellite infrastructure; their business, funded essentially out of tax revenues. purpose is the reliable provision of time signals, However, applications gave rise to technologies navigation signals and images. There is no room that are used in everyday life. For example, there for compromise here. The provision of everything has been a huge shift in the world of communica- within the sovereign remit must be reliable and, tion. Therein lies the major challenge for OHB in above all, safe and secure. NewSpace principles 06 // Interview Does OHB believe the public is sufficiently aware of how vital space applications has be- come in our daily lives? The general public definitely is not. Space tech- nology is still viewed as something that we can basically do without. It’s fine when there’s enough money for it, otherwise not. People still have an image in their heads of travelling to distant planets. Compromise in this sector, which satis- fies human curiosity through exploration, is pos- sible in times when money is tight. But when it comes to infrastructure that is necessary for our daily lives to function, satellite technology is in- dispensable. Such areas include Earth observa- tion, navigation, communication and time syn- chronisation in the global financial system. To what extent do Elon Musk’s activities help? The Eaglet-1 is a satellite are slightly more difficult to implement in this I think what he’s doing is a good thing. One effect in the under ten kilogram respect. However, they complement these core he is having is to challenge an industry whose class. The satellite based elements in the areas of observation, communi- clients are mainly publicly funded to become on the Cube-Sat was developed and built by cation and navigation. much more cost-effective. In that respect, the way he goes about his business puts pressure on OHB Italia. Marco Fuchs recently said that SpaceX’s devel- for these applications at the time. High-speed In automated stock How quickly does OHB intend to integrate the others but is an attractive prospect at the same exchange trading, every opment of the Falcon Heavy took immense Internet, smartphones and the like has changed principles of NewSpace into the corporate time. The pressure is there nonetheless, however: microsecond counts.