Active Space lands €3 million satellite deal

Active Space Technologies, the Coimbra-based engineering company, has secured its largest contract to date, a manufacturing order for structural components across 340 satellites, valued at between €2.5 million and €3 million, with delivery due by June 2028.

The customer is a European prime contractor involved in a satellite constellation programme. Its identity has not been disclosed under a confidentiality agreement. Active Space has been embedded in the programme's supply chain for approximately four and a half years, supplying six structural components per satellite.

Active Space designs, manufactures, assembles, integrates, and tests precision electro-mechanical components for spacecraft in conditions that most small European manufacturers must outsource. Its Coimbra facility includes an ISO 7 cleanroom with thermal vacuum testing capability, enabling a complete manufacturing-to-qualification loop in-house. That self-contained capability positions it against larger component suppliers such as OHB and Dhruva Space, while serving as a tier-2 partner to prime contractors including Airbus, Thales Alenia Space, OHB, Beyond Gravity, APCO, Sener, and ICEYE. The company also contributes components to European Space Agency missions including Plato, Ariel, and Envision.

Its position inside an active constellation programme, across 340 satellites, with a defined delivery schedule, gives it repeatable, volume-driven revenue that is structurally difficult for a new entrant to displace mid-programme. That kind of embedded supply chain role is rare for a company of its size, currently generating approximately €4 million in annual turnover.

The constellation contract is now functioning as a commercial passport. Active Space is preparing to enter Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates under a formal internationalisation programme backed by AICEP, Portugal's trade and investment agency. According to Filipe Castanheira, the company's chief executive, the target sectors in the region are space-related defence, dual-use technologies, and telecommunications. Initial business development visits are expected to begin in 2026.

Gulf sovereign buyers in the space hardware sector have increasingly required suppliers to demonstrate credibility at constellation scale before engaging European SMEs. The €2.5, 3 million contract provides precisely that evidence, shifting Active Space from a capable niche manufacturer into a documented volume supplier at a moment when both Saudi Arabia and the UAE are deploying state capital into space procurement.

The Middle East push is designed to complement the company's European operations, not replace them. ESA missions and existing prime contractor relationships remain the core of its activity. The AICEP programme provides funded market-entry support, adding a structured outbound capability to what has until now been an inbound-driven growth model.

A 35-person manufacturer in Coimbra has built itself into a recurring-volume position inside one of Europe's most significant satellite programmes. The next question is whether Gulf market-entry converts that credibility into a second durable revenue base.