When one speaks of industrialization everywhere, one rarely thinks of space travel.

But even this is not just becoming a business, it has long been, but more and more the products are being mass-produced.

It's not just about the transportation of people into space, for which entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have allowed themselves to be shot into space in the past few weeks with a PR effect.

It is also about very nasty satellite technology, which can change a lot more than simple space tourism.

Patrick Bernau

Responsible editor for economics and "Money & More" of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

  • Follow I follow

Last week, the attention was great when the Porsche family company got involved in the rocket start-up "Isar Aerospace".

At first glance, Isar Aerospace does not seem to be working on the technical front: The company develops unmanned rockets that can only carry small loads.

But that's exactly where economic progress comes in - that's not only the company's beliefs, says Hubertus Bardt, Managing Director of the Institute of German Economy: Because satellites are getting smaller and smaller, more and more of them could be launched into low orbits and completely new services there take over that make life easier for people on earth.

Small satellites bring great benefits

The American satellite operator “Planet”, for example, with a German office on Kurfürstendamm directly at Kranzler-Eck, has many small satellites in orbit. They do not send particularly high-resolution images, but they often fly over every part of the world. In this way, you can quickly provide the helpers with an overview after a disaster. Or they analyze weather phenomena. Or they show how many containers are in which ports. German start-ups can also work with the data. This is how, for example, analyzes are made that the railway can use to check the forests around its tracks: Are the trees rotten there? Are the trees threatening to fall on the tracks?

The satellites of this newer generation are so small that they shouldn't even leave space junk behind: after a few years they will fall back to earth and should completely burn up in the process.

New start-ups are founded

“This creates a real ecosystem of data evaluation,” says Thomas Jarzombek, the federal government's coordinator for aerospace.

“A satellite used to be the size of a bus, then it was like a washing machine.

Some newer satellites are only as big as a gift box for a wine bottle. "

In Germany, the veteran space companies such as Airbus and OHB are in the business.

But also a number of young start-ups - such as Isar Aerospace, which builds rockets.

“We developed rocket propulsion systems at the university, and one day companies called us and wanted to buy these propulsion systems,” co-founder Daniel Metzler once told the FAS.

This start-up scene is now even dreaming of a German spaceport at sea, from where rockets could be launched into space.

But the plans have since evolved: Perhaps you no longer even have to put a system in the sea.

In the meantime everything is so small that the spaceport might fit on a converted ship, which then goes out to sea and can launch the rocket there.