German Orbital Systems

German Orbital Systems (GOS) was formed as a spin-off from Technische Universität (TU) Berlin, a well-known university when it comes to satellite technology. However, in fact, the company was established as Exolaunch’s subsidiary in 2014, with Walter Ballheimer (who left the company in 2021) acting as its CEO.

GOS specializes in separation sequence management units for the launch support services through its sister company. GOS has played a major role in technical support, including ballistic calculations, separation sequence planning, and provision of qualification and acceptance test campaigns. Under cooperation between GOS and Exolaunch, it has developed a family of CubeSat separation and deploying systems. During the last two years, more than 100 SmallSats have been launched by the companies.

GOS has also recently developed, assembled, tested, verified, and launched 11 commercial CubeSats and one microsatellite. The company currently has flight-tested 3U and 6U platforms with related components.

The services mentioned above have made GOS a “turnkey solution” where the customer can get all their service needs, from subcomponents and rideshare opportunities to entire missions.

The company’s technical expertise is mostly represented by Russian staff. The German Orbital Systems’ CTO, Daria Stepanova, has experience as Engineer in Sputnix (a Russian satellite and components manufacturer). She also participates in different international space symposiums as Russia’s representative.

Considering the company’s ties with Exolaunch (which actively cooperates with Russia through Glavkosmos launch services), the potential cooperation with German Orbital Systems can lead to the critical technologies transferred to Russia.