He had always been sure of one thing. „It had to be something to do with outer space“, says Thomas Sinn. After all, he grew up in Lampoldshausen – where the German Aerospace Centre tests rocket propulsion systems. However, he actually vowed not to found a start-up, he reports in an interview with the journalists' association AJPAE. After studying computer science, his brother founded several start-ups, and he realised how difficult the financial situation can be for young companies.

Yet Sinn is now at the helm of Dcubed, one of the most promising space start-ups in Europe. The Munich-based supplier, which produces deployable structures for satellite manufacturers, is not as much in the limelight as micro launcher start-ups such as Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg – both customers of Dcubed. However, it is considered a pioneer in the so-called in-space manufacturing of solar panels, i.e., their production in space.

Parts are already being produced on the International Space Station (ISS) using 3D printers. However, no small satellites have yet produced structural components in space. In June, Dcubed wants to be the first company in the world to demonstrate that this is possible with the help of 3D printers. In February 2025, the start-up, which was founded in 2019, wants to set another world – or rather space – first by manufacturing a solar panel in space. „The idea is to have a subsystem on the satellite that can unfold and print the solar panel,“ says Sinn, who studied deployable structures for his doctoral thesis in Scotland. After leaving school, he initially studied aerospace engineering in Stuttgart. „But after three years, I was frustrated by how slow it was in Germany, so I went to the USA.“

While some of his fellow students started at Space X after graduating in Kansas, Sinn initially started at ESA (European Space Agency) after completing his doctorate. But even there, he quickly became frustrated „because the agency only monitors what the industry does“. He, therefore, switched to the industry at HPS (High-Performance Space Structure Systems), a Munich-based company specialising in deployable structures and space debris.

The fact that Sinn founded his own company at the end of 2018 was actually thanks to a friend who was working for Rocket Lab's „It's business time“ mission in New Zealand, for which Sinn was to develop a trigger mechanism for an experiment with a deployable structure. He had just three months to do this. He bought a 3D printer and got to work. The experiment was a success. This gave rise to the idea of Deployables Cubed – the official name – to offer low-cost, quickly available release mechanisms, especially for small satellites. The start-up now has 35 employees and 18 customers from four continents.

The desire to make a difference himself is also the driving force behind Walter Ballheimer, co-founder and CEO of Reflex Aerospace, another space start-up. After studying aerospace sciences at the Technical University of Berlin, he initially began teaching there. Still, he then founded his first own company relatively soon after in 2014, German Orbital Systems, the first German provider of cube sats, small, cuboid satellites. At the same time, he worked as Chief Technology Officer of Exolaunch, a launch provider.

„In the USA, the first CubeSat companies had already been around for ten years,“ he reports. In recent years, however, more and more CubeSat start-ups have emerged, especially in Eastern Europe, so that he began to take an interest in larger satellites. This led to the idea for Reflex Aerospace. The start-up, founded in 2021 and based in Berlin and Munich, aims to use artificial intelligence and 3D printers to build satellite platforms quickly and cheaply, a market that has long been dominated by a few long-established companies such as Airbus, OHB and Lockheed Martin. The first satellite from Reflex Aerospace is due to fly in the autumn.

„I had my own personal Space X moment,“ says Ballheimer. „When I visited a Space X plant in the USA, I realised that we weren't thinking big enough in Europe.“ According to Ballheimer, he was then lucky enough to convince the investor Bulent Altan, a former Space X employee. Altan is one of the founding partners of Alpine Space Ventures, a Munich-based investment fund specialising in New Space.

Most of the money for space start-ups still comes from outside Europe, says Dcubed founder Sinn. But interest from European investors is increasing, adds Ballheimer. „There are a lot of defence funds that are now investing in space.“ While the national space agency CNES supports start-ups in France, German start-ups are supported by the ESA. Sinn reports that there are also a number of space investors in and around Paris. „The events in Ukraine have shown that space is essential,“ says Ballheimer. „Satellites are the backbone of everything. Data is the gold of the 21st century.“