“Typisch Deutsch”: The Summer of German Commercial Space

Whenever Germany scored a goal in the UEFA European Championship tournament this summer, hundreds of thousands of Germans across the world united in song: and they were singing about space.??

Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom (V?llig losgel?st)”, first released in 1983, was chosen as the official goal song (or “Torhymne”) of the German national team this year. It’s getting plenty of air time: during the group stage of the tournament, Germany scored more goals than any other team. The song has been featured in a new marketing campaign by Adidas - called “Typisch Deutsch”, or “Typical German” - and was recently the topic of an excellent piece in the 纽约时报 by Sebastian Stafford-Bloor. As I write, Major Tom sits at 11th on Spotify’s list of top fifty songs in Germany. In the song, Major Tom (the same Major Tom from David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, which heavily influenced Schilling) prepares for a fateful rocket launch.?

Songs often capture, whether by design or organic groundswell, the zeitgeist of a moment. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” immediately brings to mind the anti-war and counterculture movements of the 1960s. The Scorpions’ “Wind of Change”, released in 1991, encapsulated the feeling of the end of the Cold War in Europe. Recorded by a West German band, there’s a fascinating conspiracy theory that it was actually ghost-written by the CIA. Since the escalation of the war in Ukraine, MGMT’s “Little Dark Age” has become a favorite of “NATOWave” video edits, which feature compilations of Western military hardware. Of course, global football itself is famous for its theme songs and crowd favorites, like Shakira’s World Cup title song “Waka Waka” in 2010, or the Icelandic “Viking Thunder Clap” chant during their storybook run at the Euro 2016 tournament.?

While Germany was eliminated from the tournament last Friday in an extra-time loss to Spain, Major Tom embodies another trend: the summer of the German commercial space sector. The song’s selection coincides with a moment where the German space industry is reaching new heights. Just last month, a U.S. government delegation traveled to Berlin for the inaugural U.S-Germany Space Dialogue. On the most recent SpaceX rideshare mission, Transporter-10, fully half of the satellites onboard were installed by a German company. After a year-long hiatus, ArianeSpace (which is ~20% owned by German companies) returns to the launch pad with Ariane 6 today, while a vibrant German launch startup community seeks to provide alternative rocket solutions. German entities are intimately involved, through investment and partnership, in the race to replace the International Space Station, which will be deorbited in 2030. This trend is not unique to Germany - the commercial space ecosystem has grown across Europe, with significant contributions from long-time space nations France and Italy - but German industry has reached a crescendo.

Germany has a long and complex history as a leader in space exploration. The nation can lay claim to one of the pioneering figures in rocketry, with Hermann Oberth, but also one of the most controversial, with Wernher von Braun. Operation Paperclip brought von Braun and other Nazi scientists to the United States, where they supported the early days of NASA and the eventual success of the Apollo program. Jeffrey Manber 's graphic novel “From the Earth to Mars” provides an entertaining and easily digestible history of those complicated times for readers of all ages.

With the reunification of East and West Germany, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the development of the International Space Station, Germany found its way back to the top: today, Germany has the fourth-most number of flown astronauts (after the US, USSR/Russia, China, and Japan). Less than two years after the standup of the US Space Force and the re-establishment of the American Space Command, Germany followed suit with its own space headquarters - featuring literal stormtroopers in attendance. In 2020, NATO established its Space Centre in Ramstein, Germany, to coordinate all the Alliance’s space activities. The Alliance descends on DC this week for the annual NATO Summit, where space will certainly be a major topic - especially given Russia's recent maneuvering.

On the commercial front, the German space industry has found itself in the vanguard. If there’s a trend in space, a German company is part of it. Take satellite deployments: SpaceX rideshare missions have effectively become bus routes into orbit, offering cheap and reliable access to space for small satellites (typically those under 200 kilograms). On the most recent flight, called Transporter-10, fifty-three satellites rode a single launch vehicle into Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO). The first Transporter mission in 2021 set the record for most satellites on a single rocket at 143 (133 customers and 10 Starlinks). Since the beginning of 2023, five Transporter missions have put a total of over 400 payloads into orbit. Many of these satellites are developed by startups, universities, or smaller government programs focused on science missions or technology demonstrations. These payloads generally rely on what are called “integrators”: companies which specialize in supporting spaceflight missions for other companies. Integrators often coordinate a batch of multiple customer satellites on a single launch, negotiating directly with the launch vehicle on their behalf, and are responsible for handling the intricacies of testing, certifying, and physically attaching payload satellites to the rocket.?In some cases, these integrators can also support more established space companies, like publicly-traded Planet and Spire, who launch significant numbers of small satellites to upgrade their constellations.

On Transporter-9, which launched in November, more than a third of the total satellites were integrated by Exolaunch , a Berlin-based New Space company. For Transporter-10, ExoLaunch supported half of the satellites. On the next mission, scheduled for later in July, ExoLaunch has more than forty individual satellites manifested. Over the last five Transporter flights, this single company is responsible for at least 150 satellites, ~37% of the total number deployed. Since their first payloads in 2013 onboard a Soyuz mission, ExoLaunch has deployed more than 390 total satellites over 28 launches. This numer will rise with the launch of Ariane 6 scheduled for later today. While different integrators self-report different metrics publicly which makes a direct comparison difficult, ExoLaunch has deployed more individual satellites more recently than any other currently-operating satellite integrator.

Not only does ExoLaunch provide their services to more satellites than any other competitor, but their technology has become the industry standard. Their separation systems, the hardware that physically deploys a satellite from a launch vehicle once in orbit, are effective and widely used - partially due to an “ITAR-free” design that allows for global use and export. Their newest system, known as “Quadro”, was announced in February of this year.

This industry leadership in spacecraft component design and manufacture extends beyond just deployment mechanisms. Publicly-traded Mynaric, based in Munich, is a leader in the development of optical communications systems for satellites; while OHB (short for Otto Hydraulik Bremen), builds satellite components for government and commercial customers and generates nearly one billion euros in annual revenue.?

Launch itself is no different. German companies own about twenty percent of the Ariane Space consortium and have invested in a stable of domestic launch vehicle startups. OHB has spun-out a group called Rocket Factory Augsburg, which began a testing campaign in May for their first rocket. Their first launch is planned for later this summer at the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Islands. DLR, the German Aerospace Center (Germany’s NASA), spun-off their own hybrid-propulsion rocket company in 2018, called HyImpulse. The company recently tested their first suborbital rocket on May 3, from a test range in Australia, and has a small-lift orbital variant in development. Isar Aerospace, based in Munich, has raised more than 400 million euros in funding, including an investment from Porsche. They’re planning to launch their first vehicle, Spectrum, sometime in 2024. On June 20, Isar announced an additional $70 million investment, partially backed by the new NATO Innovation Fund.

One of the highest-profile space projects in the U.S. is the fate of the International Space Station and the continuation of human presence in Low-Earth Orbit. SpaceX was recently awarded a contract to deorbit the ISS at the end of 2030. A handful of companies have been awarded contracts from NASA to build a commercial replacement to the station, while even more stand on the sidelines preparing for a chance to compete for a “pre-buy” contract from NASA - where NASA will agree to send astronauts to a future station, given it can be certified as safe - with a total value in the hundreds of millions. Of these competitors, three have emerged as frontrunners: Voyager Space (through a subsidiary joint venture called Starlab Space); Axiom Space; and Vast. All three teams feature some element of European partnership, and Germany is heavily represented.

Voyager Technologies , originally awarded their Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) NASA contract through a subsidiary called Nanoracks, has spun-off a multinational joint venture, known as Starlab Space, to build and operate a free-flying commercial station called Starlab. In partnership with Airbus (Germany/France), Mitsubishi Corporation (Japan), and MDA Space (Canada), this joint venture structure serves to replicate the “international” aspect of the ISS, only via investment and commercial partnership rather than government treaties. If that sounds like a talking point, it is - I spent three years at Voyager Space crafting the strategy for the Starlab station. In addition to Airbus’s participation in the joint venture as an investor, major portions of the station manufacture and operations will likely be based in Germany. Starlab has also signed an agreement with The Exploration Company (jointly headquartered in Munich and Bordeaux) for cargo flights to the future station. The Starlab station is planned to launch in 2028, with a flight aboard SpaceX’s Starship already contracted.

Axiom Space , based in Houston, a contract from NASA to build commercial modules on the ISS which will later detach and operate as an independent station. Axiom has also signed their own contract with The Exploration Company to use their Nyx cargo vehicle to deliver supplies to the future Axiom Station. While the first Axiom modules are under construction by the French/Italian consortium Thales Alenia Space, the American company has also signed a deal with the German state of Bavaria to explore building a research center and “European hub”.

Vast , which does not have an existing CLD contract with NASA (they were founded after the initial competition), has moved quickly to establish themselves as a viable competitor. They plan to deploy a self-funded, short-term, independent space station within the next two years, before building a larger station to meet NASA’s future requirements. Vast has their own deal with The Exploration Company, and has publicly speculated about a future presence in Europe.

The Exploration Company, with its presence in both France and Germany, highlights an important qualification - this trend of participation in commercial space is not unique to Germany, but is broadly recognizable across Europe. Ariane Space is predominantly owned by French companies; D-Orbit (Italy) and ISISpace (Netherlands) integrate satellites on most SpaceX Transporter missions; Avio (Italy) is the prime contractor for the Vega launch vehicles and has been around for over a hundred years, while UK startups Skyrora and Orbex are also competing in the small-launch market. The US - French Space Dialogue hosted their second annual meeting this year, while France trails Germany by only a single astronaut in overall number.

There’s one key development to watch in European space politics this summer. Most large-scale space projects in Europe are undertaken by the European Space Agency (ESA) and have a controversial requirement, known as “geo-return”, wherein member state contributions to the agency result in proportional contracts to companies within that country. Germany typically narrowly tops the list in contributions to ESA. Recently, however, ESA has announced an upcoming evolution to those policies, which may open the field to more advanced and cost-effective space companies, regardless of their nationality.

While we wait to see the evolution of ESA’s policies, Germany’s space industry is hitting major milestones this summer and will likely continue to excel. This leadership is partially due to a combination of economic power and government policy focus. The German economy is the third largest in the world with a GDP of 4.1 billion euros in 2023 and features a strong tradition of aerospace manufacturing. DLR’s annual funding is the sixth-largest domestic space agency budget in the world, and the German government’s newest space strategy outlined a plan to foster public-private partnerships and strengthen “New Space” company growth. The German military continues to invest in space as well - Airbus was just awarded a $2.5 billion contract to build the next generation of the Bundeswehr’s satellite communications constellation.

Perhaps Major Tom’s selection as a goal song this year, and its subsequent rise in popularity, is symbolic of an additional cultural contributor to German space interest. The song wasn’t just chosen by soccer executives in a boardroom - nearly 40,000 Germans signed a petition to propose Schilling’s hit. After all, German participation in commercial space extends beyond just building rockets and satellites. Countless German companies, from Porsche to Bayer, are deeply involved and dependent on space. Adidas has even taken part in the commercial space revolution, sending shoe technology to the International Space Station for testing in 2020, supported by Nanoracks, my former employer. I like to think the Adidas marketing team knew exactly what they were doing when they featured Major Tom in their new “Typical German” campaign.?

The space industry is full of debates right now - how to truly measure the space economy (with the new Bureau of Economic Analysis report); what to do with the ISS in 2030; the best way to execute a Mars Sample Return mission - but one certainty is that German companies will find a way to be involved. Typisch Deutsch!