Every third aerospace employee in Germany works in Bavaria. Aerospace technology, satellite navigation and remote sensing in Bavaria cover the entire value-added chain: major aerospace companies such as Airbus Defense & Space, IABG and OHB SE with its subsidiaries MT Aerospace and former Kayser-Threde are based in Bavaria. Also, key components for the European ARIANE launcher are made in Bavaria – like e.g. the solid propellant booster cases for the thrust chambers of all ARIANE 5 liquid fuel rockets (Aestus and Vulcain).
Bavarian enterprises boast a high level of competence in the fields of ceramics, flight control systems, and solar panels.
Bavaria is best equipped for satellite navigation & positioning: one of the two Galileo operation control centers is located in Bavaria and the GATE test area provides facilities to test Galileo applications and their robustness against e.g. jamming and spoofing.
On the remote sensing side Bavaria currently hosts two members of the Copernicus Relay Network appointed by the European Commission’s DG GROW as well as three Copernicus Academy members, all embedded in a dense network of companies delivering environmental, agricultural and security services based on earth observation data.
