Manufacturers / Integrators

OHB likes to describe itself as Germany’s scrappy independent satellite builder, the agile alternative to Airbus. In reality it’s the aerospace equivalent of a boutique consultancy that lucked into defense…

Telespazio is one of those companies that exists because European defense-industrial politics demand every mid-sized country have a “space services champion.” On paper it’s a 67/33 joint venture between Leonardo…

Leonardo is Italy’s contribution to the European defense club, though “contribution” might be generous. It is a sprawling, state-backed conglomerate that has never quite decided if it wants to be…

Thales is the polite face of the French defense-industrial machine, though polite here means it smiles while taking the contract and delivers it years late. It lives at the intersection…

Airbus is less a company than a peace treaty. It was born to stop France and Germany from strangling each other over aerospace, and it still functions like a permanent…

Maxar Technologies builds and operates satellites that take pictures of the Earth. These pictures are not shared with the general public in real time. They are sold to governments and…