Frankfurt (AFP)

Europeans have Airbus Espace, France and Italy have Thales Alania, and in Germany it is a lesser-known family business, OHB, which is becoming the standard of national satellite strategy.

Latest example, the Bremen company of 2,800 employees emerged among the winners of orders placed in early July by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the second phase of its Earth observation program Copernicus.

On six planned satellites, OHB will manufacture the one designed to monitor CO2 emissions produced by human activity over the coming decades, with the aim of helping political decision-makers to take decisions to reduce them.

"Certain space missions are mainly relevant from a scientific point of view, at OHB we value projects serving people on a daily basis," said Marco Fuchs, president of OHB, at AFP, to explain this success.

Even if Thales Alenia Space has taken the lion's share of orders, OHB sees itself in an "ideal situation" to participate in the "permanent monitoring of the Earth in terms of environment, climate and security", according to M Fuchs.

The German aerospace sector, which totaled 800 million euros in orders under "Copernicus 2.0", or 30% of the total envelope, "is well equipped to be competitive on an international scale", estimates Thomas Jarzombek , in charge of aerospace within the parliamentary group of the conservative party of Angela Merkel (CDU).

- Family first -

OHB was chosen for the first time in the Copernicus system thanks to its aura gleaned from Galileo, the other flagship program of ESA responding to American GPS and for which the German group has built around twenty satellites to date.

This contract won in 2010 under the nose and beard of the giant Astrium, an Airbus subsidiary, has propelled the Petit Poucet of the aerospace industry to the rank of a key player in the development and assembly of satellites.

It all started in 1982 when the entrepreneur Christa Fuchs bought the small company OHB, for Otto Hydraulik Bremen, a ship repair shop since its beginnings in 1958.

Manfred Fuchs, her husband, an aeronautical engineer in Hamburg, joined the company in 1985 to make her take the aerospace course. In 2000, he bequeathed the management to his son Marco, who was experienced in finance as a former business lawyer.

And the family still today firmly holds 70% of the capital, the rest being listed on the stock market.

Now in the cockpit, he pleads for "the EU to try something new", by launching a "telecommunications program" to be able to connect in remote land areas or at sea.

Europe must here "compete with Starlink systems from Space X" by Elon Musk and "Kuiper from Blue Origin" by Jeff Bezos, he explains.

European Commissioner Thierry Breton also wants to "quickly propose" a project for the EU to strengthen its autonomy in broadband Internet, he told Le Figaro.

- Refusal of reconciliation -

The coronavirus crisis could, however, dampen the momentum of the family business, valued at 740 million euros and typical of Germanic capitalism based on a large fabric of SMEs.

It has given up paying a dividend to its shareholders this year and deprived its employees of performance bonuses or salary increases.

Other projects are nevertheless being pursued, such as in Augsburg, in Bavaria, with the aim of manufacturing a mini-rocket capable of sending small satellites into space.

The project was shortlisted on Tuesday along with two others to receive a grant from the German government. The Augsburg site had however had to stop its activities two weeks at the end of May.

And the family company values ​​its independence. Also manufacturing elements of large rockets, it refuses the marriage to three with Arianegroup and the Italian Avio, however called for its wishes in March by the French Minister for the Economy Bruno Le Maire in order to strengthen Europe in the sector of space launch vehicles.

"The consolidation of Arianegroup and OHB would not improve the EU space industry," said Fuchs.

© 2020 AFP