German space technology company OHB announced on 11 November that it had established a new subsidiary to consolidate its existing launch infrastructure projects.
OHB is currently involved in a joint project to establish a floating launch facility off the coast of Germany. The project, which has already received nearly €2.9 million in funding from the German government, is designed to accommodate multiple users for both suborbital and orbital missions. Additionally, through its now wholly owned subsidiary, MT Aerospace, the company is also involved in the construction of launch infrastructure at the Guiana Space Centre, including the ELA-4 launch facility that supports Ariane 6 flights.
The company’s involvement in launch infrastructure development in French Guiana also extends to the new multi-user commercial ELM facility being built on the grounds of the former Diamant launch pad. Rocket Factory Augsburg, originally founded as an OHB subsidiary but now only partially owned by the company, has enlisted OHB to assist in developing its section of the ELM complex.
According to an 11 November OHB press release, the initial goals of the new European Spaceport Company, which will be based in Bremen, are the “realisation of a European offshore spaceport and the expansion of launch capacities at the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana to include a launch complex that can be used for various rocket types.”
“Europe needs reliable and independent access to space,” said OHB CEO Marco Fuchs. “At OHB, this has been a focus for years. And of course, launch sites are part of that. We are already making a significant contribution to the offshore spaceport concept, and we will expand this contribution even further in the future.”
The company’s ambitions in the broader launch and in-orbit services sector also appear to extend beyond infrastructure. A day before announcing the establishment of the European Spaceport Company, a report from French news agency Les Echos revealed that OHB had also joined Dassault in the development of the Vortex spaceplane.
First introduced at the Paris Air Show in June, Vortex is expected to be used to transport cargo to and from a space station and to carry out a “range of in-orbit services.” Dassault is currently developing a subscale demonstrator called VORTEX-D, a project supported by the French Ministry of the Armed Forces.
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