A Pillar of European Space and Technology
In the global space industry, OHB SE stands as one of Europe’s most significant independent technology and space companies. Headquartered in the German city of Bremen, a hub for aerospace innovation, OHB has evolved from a small five-person operation into a major European prime contractor. The company is responsible for developing and manufacturing some of the continent’s most vital satellite systems, from global navigation and Earth observation to science and security.
With a workforce of over 3,000 employees spread across facilities in Germany, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, and France, OHB operates as a key systems integrator. It designs, builds, and tests complex satellites and their components, manages missions, and provides ground-based systems and data services. The company’s business is structured into three core segments: Space Systems, Aerospace, and Digital. This structure allows it to manage the entire lifecycle of a space mission, from manufacturing rocket parts to building the satellite and processing the data it sends back to Earth.
For decades, OHB has been a trusted partner of the European Space Agency (ESA), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the European Commission, and Germany’s armed forces (Bundeswehr). It is the prime contractor for Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites, a cornerstone of European technological sovereignty. Its work on the Copernicus Programme provides invaluable environmental data, while its scientific missions explore distant planets and asteroids.
In 2024, the company entered a new chapter following a major strategic partnership. The Fuchs family, which founded and guided the company for decades, partnered with the investment firm KKR to take OHB SE private. This move, completed in the latter half of 2024, was designed to provide the long-term capital and strategic flexibility needed to compete in a rapidly changing global space market. As of late 2025, OHB continues to execute on its large institutional contracts while positioning itself for future growth in both established and emerging space sectors.
The History of OHB
The story of OHB is intrinsically linked with the vision of its founding family. The company’s origins date back to 1981, when it began as “Otto Hydraulik Bremen,” a small firm focused on hydraulic systems and industrial hardware. The company’s trajectory changed permanently in 1985 when Christa and Manfred Fuchs took over the business. Manfred Fuchs, an aerospace engineer who had spent years at the Bremen-based space company ERNO, saw an opportunity to pivot the small firm toward the growing space sector.
Initially, OHB operated as a subcontractor, supplying components and specialized engineering services for larger space missions. Its early work included contributions to projects like the German Spacelab, the Eurecaretrievable carrier, and various satellite programs. The company built a reputation for reliability, precision engineering, and innovation, particularly in thermal and structural components for spacecraft.
A defining moment came in the 1990s. OHB began to transition from a parts supplier to a systems integrator, capable of building and managing small satellite missions. This strategy of vertical integration and expansion proved successful. In 1999, the company went public as OHB Teledata AG, raising capital to fund its growth.
The 2000s were a period of strategic acquisitions and landmark contracts. In 2000, Marco Fuchs, son of the founders, took over as Chief Executive Officer, guiding the company’s next phase of expansion. A major step occurred in 2007 with the acquisition of MT Aerospace AG, an Augsburg-based company that was a key supplier for the Ariane launch vehicle program. This acquisition was pivotal, immediately establishing OHB’s second major business pillar in the Aerospace segment and making it a direct stakeholder in Europe’s access to space.
This new scale and capability allowed OHB to compete for prime-level contracts. The company secured the contract for SAR-Lupe, Germany’s first military reconnaissance satellite constellation, delivering five satellites between 2006 and 2008. This success demonstrated OHB’s ability to deliver a complex, high-stakes national security system.
The most significant validation of its strategy came in 2010. A consortium led by OHB System AG won a competitive tender to build the first 14 Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites for Europe’s Galileo navigation system. This contract, one of the largest in European space history at the time, elevated OHB to the top tier of European prime contractors, alongside established giants like Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space. The company has since won subsequent contracts and is now responsible for producing 34 Galileo satellites in total.
Throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s, OHB solidified its position by acquiring specialized companies, such as OHB Italia (formerly Carlo Gavazzi Space) and OHB Sweden (formerly a division of the Swedish Space Corporation), to broaden its technological portfolio. It also won prime contracts for numerous ESA science and Earth observation missions, becoming a central pillar of Europe’s institutional space efforts.
A New Corporate Era
After decades as a publicly traded, family-influenced company, OHB initiated a major structural change in 2023. The company announced a strategic partnership with the global investment firm KKR. This agreement involved KKR launching a voluntary public takeover offer to acquire the company’s shares, with the full support of the Fuchs family, who would remain significant shareholders.
The transaction was completed in 2024, resulting in OHB SE being delisted from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The move to a private ownership structure was a strategic choice to navigate the evolving space market. This new market is characterized by intense global competition, high capital demands for new technologies, and the rise of agile, privately-funded “New Space” companies.
By going private, OHB gained the ability to pursue a long-term investment strategy without the short-term pressures of public market reporting. This structure provides the financial backing necessary to invest in next-generation satellite platforms, manufacturing facilities (often called “factories of the future”), and new ventures like in-orbit services or satellite-based data applications.
Marco Fuchs continues to lead the company as CEO, ensuring continuity in leadership and vision. The partnership with KKR is intended to accelerate OHB’s growth, enhance its competitiveness, and secure the resources needed to bid for large-scale, next-generation constellation projects.
A significant internal consolidation followed this new partnership. In October 2025, OHB SE announced it had completed the full takeover of its key subsidiary, MT Aerospace AG, by acquiring the remaining minority shares. This move fully integrates the company’s launcher-focused Aerospace segment, streamlining operations and aligning the entire group under a single, unified strategy.
OHB’s Three Business Segments
The company’s operations are organized into three distinct but interconnected business segments: Space Systems, Aerospace, and Digital.
Space Systems
This is OHB’s largest and most prominent segment, responsible for the company’s core business: developing, building, and operating satellites and space missions. OHB System AG, the group’s prime contractor, leads this segment from its main sites in Bremen and Oberpfaffenhofen. The portfolio covers nearly every domain of satellite application.
Navigation: The Galileo Constellation
OHB’s most famous contribution to European space is its role as the prime contractor for the Galileo satellite constellation. Galileo is Europe’s independent Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), providing highly accurate positioning, navigation, and timing services worldwide. It is the civilian-controlled counterpart to the United States‘ Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia‘s GLONASS, and China‘s BeiDou.
OHB’s involvement has been fundamental. After successfully bidding in 2010, the company has been responsible for manufacturing the bulk of the satellites that are currently in orbit. These are known as the Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites. OHB System AG manages the entire production line, from design and component procurement to assembly, integration, and testing (AIT). The navigation payloads themselves are supplied by Surrey Satellite Technology in the United Kingdom, a notable example of pan-European cooperation.
The satellites are assembled in OHB’s clean rooms in Bremen. Each satellite, weighing around 700 kilograms, is a highly complex piece of machinery designed for a 12-year operational life in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), about 23,000 kilometers above the planet.
To date, OHB has been contracted to build 34 of these FOC satellites across several batches. The company’s ability to serially produce these high-reliability spacecraft has been a key factor in the constellation’s successful deployment. OHB is also deeply involved in the development of the next generation, known as Galileo Second Generation (G2). These new satellites will feature enhanced capabilities, including all-electric propulsion, more powerful navigation signals, and improved clocks for even greater accuracy.
Earth Observation: Monitoring the Planet
OHB is a major industrial partner in the Copernicus Programme, the European Union‘s ambitious Earth observation initiative. Copernicus uses a family of satellites, known as Sentinels, to provide a continuous stream of data on the state of the Earth’s environment. This data is used for climate change monitoring, land and ocean management, and disaster response.
OHB’s contributions are varied. The company is leading the industrial consortium for the Copernicus Carbon Dioxide Monitoring (CO2M) mission. This mission, with its first satellite planned for launch in 2025, is designed to precisely measure atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by human activity. By tracking CO2 emissions at a national and regional level, CO2M provides a unique scientific tool for monitoring the effectiveness of climate policies.
The company is also developing the satellite platforms for the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) sounding satellites (MTG-S). These satellites, part of a program managed by ESA and EUMETSAT, provides a revolutionary leap in weather forecasting by analyzing the atmosphere in three dimensions.
Furthermore, OHB is developing Germany’s national hyperspectral satellite mission, EnMAP (Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program). This scientific satellite uses a special instrument to observe sunlight reflected from the Earth’s surface across a wide spectrum. This “spectral fingerprint” allows scientists to identify the composition of materials, such as mineral types, water quality, and the health of vegetation, in unprecedented detail.
Security and Reconnaissance
A specialized and discreet part of OHB’s business is the development of reconnaissance satellites for national security. The company’s reputation in this field was established with the SAR-Lupe system for the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr).
SAR-Lupe is a constellation of five identical satellites launched between 2006 and 2008. The “SAR” stands for Synthetic Aperture Radar, a powerful technology that allows the satellites to “see” the Earth’s surface day or night, and even through heavy cloud cover. OHB was the prime contractor for the entire system, including the five satellites and the ground segment for data reception and analysis. The system provided Germany with its first autonomous global reconnaissance capability.
OHB is currently delivering the successor system, known as SARah. This new-generation system is more advanced and capable than its predecessor. It is a “hybrid” constellation consisting of three satellites. One satellite, SARah-1, was built by Airbus and features an active “phased-array” radar antenna, which can be electronically steered to image different areas quickly.
The other two satellites, SARah-2 and SARah-3, were built by OHB and are based on the passive reflector antenna technology similar to that used in SAR-Lupe. SARah-1 was successfully launched in June 2022. SARah-2 and SARah-3 were launched together on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in December 2023. However, following their launch, reports indicated that both OHB-built satellites failed to deploy their reflector antennas correctly, rendering them inoperable. This represents a significant setback for the program, and as of late 2025, efforts are focused on resolving the issue and ensuring the system’s operational capacity, which currently relies on the single active satellite.
Science and Exploration
Beyond practical applications, OHB is a key builder of spacecraft designed to answer fundamental scientific questions. The company has a strong track record of winning contracts for complex deep-space missions from the European Space Agency.
One of the most exciting current missions is Hera. OHB is the prime contractor for the Hera spacecraft, which successfully launched in October 2024. Hera is Europe’s contribution to the AIDA (Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment) collaboration with NASA. It is a planetary defense mission.
Hera is traveling to the Didymos binary asteroid system. Its target is the small moonlet Dimorphos, which was intentionally impacted by NASA’s DART spacecraft in 2022. The DART impact successfully altered the asteroid’s orbit. Hera’s job is to arrive in 2026 and conduct a detailed “crime scene investigation.” It will map the impact crater, measure the mass and composition of Dimorphos, and study the internal structure of the asteroid. This data is essential for validating the kinetic impactor method as a viable strategy for deflecting an asteroid that might one day threaten Earth.
Another flagship science mission led by OHB is PLATO, the PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars mission. PLATO is ESA’s next-generation exoplanet hunter, scheduled for launch later this decade. The spacecraft, being built by OHB, will use an array of 26 separate telescopes to stare at a large patch of the sky, monitoring hundreds of thousands of stars.
It will search for tiny, regular dips in starlight that occur when a planet passes in front of its host star (a “transit”). PLATO’s primary goal is to find and characterize Earth-sized planets orbiting in the “habitable zone” of Sun-like stars – the region where liquid water could exist on the surface. It will also study the host stars themselves, providing important information about their age and properties.
OHB has also made contributions to other major science missions, such as the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (for which it built the core module) and the JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) mission.
Telecommunications
In the commercial telecommunications market, OHB developed its own satellite platform called SmallGEO. This is a modular platform for satellites in the 3-ton class, designed to be flexible and cost-effective for a variety of telecom missions in geostationary orbit.
The first satellite based on this platform was Hispasat 36W-1, launched in 2017 for the Spanish operator Hispasat. OHB also built EDRS-C, the second satellite for the European Data Relay System, using the SmallGEO platform. EDRS, sometimes called the “SpaceDataHighway,” uses lasers to collect data from Low Earth Orbit satellites (like the Copernicus Sentinels) and relay it quickly to ground stations.
Building on this, OHB, with significant contributions from its Swedish subsidiary, is developing the “Electra” platform. This is an all-electric propulsion version of SmallGEO. Using electric thrusters instead of traditional chemical rockets to move from its initial launch orbit to its final geostationary position allows the satellite to carry a much larger and more powerful communications payload for the same launch mass.
Aerospace
The second pillar of OHB’s business is the Aerospace segment, which is almost entirely embodied by its subsidiary, MT Aerospace AG, located in Augsburg. As noted, OHB completed its 100% acquisition of this company in October 2025, fully integrating it into the group.
MT Aerospace is a first-tier supplier for Arianespace and a central player in the Ariane launcher program. This program is Europe’s guarantee of independent access to space. For decades, MT Aerospace was the largest single German supplier to the highly successful Ariane 5 rocket, producing around 10% of its hardware.
Its contributions are substantial. MT Aerospace manufactures the large metallic structures for the rocket, including the main-stage tank domes (the end caps for the giant liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks) and the casings for the solid rocket boosters. These are large, high-precision components that must withstand extreme forces and temperatures.
With the retirement of Ariane 5, MT Aerospace has transitioned its expertise to Europe’s new launcher, Ariane 6. The company continues to be a primary partner, manufacturing the tank domes, booster casings, and other metallic structures for the new rocket. The success of Ariane 6, which completed its inaugural flight in 2024, is directly linked to the reliability of the components supplied by MT Aerospace.
Beyond Ariane, the subsidiary also produces components for other space and aerospace applications, including satellite structures, antenna components, and parts for the Airbus aircraft family. This segment provides OHB with a vital foothold in the launcher market, diversifying its revenue away from being purely a satellite builder.
Digital
The third and newest segment is “Digital.” This segment groups together OHB’s expertise in ground systems, data processing, and satellite operations. It represents the “downstream” part of the space value chain, focusing on connecting to the satellites and making their data useful.
This segment is composed of several companies, including OHB Digital Connect and OHB Digital Services.
OHB Digital Connect is a specialist in ground infrastructure. It is the successor to MAN Technologie’s antenna division, inheriting decades of experience in large-scale mechatronic systems. This company designs and builds the large, movable antennas and complete ground stations required to communicate with satellites. This includes Telemetry, Tracking, and Command (TT&C) stations to fly the spacecraft, as well as data-reception antennas to download the vast amounts of information collected by Earth observation and science missions. They supply these systems to OHB’s own missions and to external customers.
OHB Digital Services focuses on the software and data-analytics side. Its specialists develop secure IT systems, mission control software, and applications that process raw satellite data into usable “geospatial solutions.” For example, they can take data from an environmental satellite and turn it into a map of agricultural health or urban sprawl. This unit also leverages OHB’s experience in high-security government projects to offer IT security and cloud consulting services to industrial and institutional clients.
International Presence and Key Subsidiaries
While its center of gravity is in Germany, OHB is a truly European company with key subsidiaries across the continent, each bringing specialized skills.
OHB Italia
OHB Italia, based in Milan, is Italy’s second-largest space company and a key part of the OHB group. It has a long history, pre-dating its acquisition, as a supplier of scientific instruments and small satellite missions.
The company is a center of excellence for small satellite systems, robotics, and scientific payloads. It is currently delivering the Eaglet II constellation, a dual-use (civilian and military) satellite system for Italy. A noteworthy project is SATURN, a demonstration mission for which OHB Italia is the prime contractor. SATURN is a “swarm” of three microsatellites that will fly in formation to create a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system. This formation-flying technology could enable more flexible and powerful radar imaging in the future.
OHB Italia also makes regular contributions to ESA’s deep-space missions. For the Hera mission, the Italian team is responsible for the spacecraft’s advanced communication subsystem.
OHB Sweden
OHB Sweden, based in Kista, is another specialized subsidiary. It focuses on small satellite platforms and, most notably, advanced propulsion systems. The company is a leader in electric propulsion, which is far more efficient than traditional chemical propulsion for long-duration missions or for station-keeping in orbit.
Its most significant contribution is to the SmallGEO and Electra platforms. OHB Sweden designed and supplied the innovative propulsion systems for these satellites, including the all-electric propulsion module for Electra. This expertise is a key technological advantage for the OHB group in the competitive telecom market.
OHB Cosmos
OHB Cosmos is the group’s in-house launch service provider. Originally founded to manage the launch of the SAR-Lupe satellites on the Russian Cosmos-3M rocket, the company has evolved into a launch broker. It manages the complex process of integrating an OHB-built satellite with a launch vehicle and procuring launch services from a variety of global providers, such as Arianespace, SpaceX, and India’s ISRO.
Strategy and Future Outlook
OHB is navigating a period of significant change. The strategic partnership with KKR and the delisting from the stock market have provided the financial stability to pursue a long-term strategy. This strategy is focused on several key areas.
First, the company is strengthening its position as a prime contractor for large-scale institutional programs in Europe. This includes bidding for the next generation of Copernicus, Galileo, and other ESA missions. These long-term, multi-billion-euro contracts provide a stable base of revenue and work.
Second, OHB is investing heavily in new technologies to stay competitive. This includes developing fully electric and highly flexible satellite platforms, investing in automated “Factory of the Future” manufacturing techniques to build satellites faster and cheaper, and advancing its capabilities in secure communications and data processing.
Third, the company is selectively engaging with the “New Space” economy. OHB was an early investor in Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), a German startup developing a “microlauncher” called RFA One. This investment gives OHB insight and a potential stake in the growing market for small satellite launches.
A recent and notable new venture, announced in late 2025, is a partnership with French aerospace giant Dassault Aviation. The two companies are collaborating on a project called “Vortex,” a concept for a reusable orbital transport vehicle, or “spaceplane.” This ambitious, forward-looking project aims to develop a European solution for low-Earth orbit transportation, potentially for servicing satellites or carrying cargo.
OHB faces challenges, including intense competition from established American and European players and agile startups. The reported failure of the two SARah satellites in late 2023 underscores the immense technical risks inherent in the space industry. However, the company’s diversified portfolio, its deep and trusted relationship with Europe’s public institutions, and its new, financially robust private structure position it to remain a central force in the European space sector for years to come.
Summary
OHB SE has grown from a small engineering firm in Bremen to one of Europe’s three largest prime contractors for space systems. Through the leadership of the Fuchs family and a series of strategic acquisitions, the company has become a “one-stop shop” for space, with capabilities spanning rocket components (Aerospace), satellite manufacturing (Space Systems), and ground operations and data services (Digital).
The company is the industrial heart of the Galileo navigation constellation, a key builder for the Copernicus Earth observation program, and a trusted partner for Germany’s national security space assets. Its scientific spacecraft are traveling to distant asteroids and searching for new worlds. Following its 2024 privatization with KKR, OHB is now poised for a new phase of long-term investment, aiming to solidify its role as a pillar of European technological sovereignty in an increasingly competitive and dynamic global space industry.
