AMSTERDAM – Spire Global has established a facility in Munich to develop and manufacture as many as 100 small satellites annually.
With manufacturing plants in Boulder, Colorado, Glasgow, Scotland, and Munich, Spire Global will be able to 300 to 400 satellites a year, Spire CEO Theresa Condor, said during a May 13 earnings call.
“Spire is one of very few companies anywhere with that footprint, and it is meaningful as sovereignty and local production requirements become more central to defense procurement,” Condor said. “It’s exciting that we have those capabilities on both sides of the Atlantic. It is a competitive differentiator for us.”
The first satellites to be integrated in the Munich facility will be for Eurialo, satellite constellation designed to locate and track aircraft by observing their radio-frequency emissions. In addition, the Munich facility, which includes an ISO-certified clean room for satellite and payload processing, will give Spire “the ability to continue to do European-specific sovereign capabilities,” Condor said.
Global and European demand for sovereign space assets has surged since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The Munich “facility positions Spire to support Germany’s domestic space infrastructure while addressing critical gaps in space-based intelligence, including capabilities relevant to the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) such as space reconnaissance and RF geolocation and monitoring,” according Spire’s May 7 news release.
“By combining satellite manufacturing with Spire’s proven RF geolocation capabilities, we are enabling a new class of responsive space-based intelligence systems that can be integrated into national and European security frameworks while expanding our industrial footprint to support the growing demand for space-based intelligence solutions,” Condor said in a statement. Spire won a 16 million euro ($18.6 million) ESA contract in 2023 to develop and demonstrate critical technologies for the Eurialo mission.
