Hungarian hi-tech firms supply ESA satellite projects

Visualisation of Sentinel 2 series satellite

Hi-tech Hungarian aerospace parts producer Admatis has won a major contract to supply satellite components for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus research programme.

The Miskolc, Hungary-based firm is due to deliver a range of 140 components to Airbus Defence and Space group which is involved in the manufacture of the programme’s latest Sentinel 2 Earth monitoring satellites.

Admatis will cooperate with other Hungarian firms, also members of HUNSPACE, the Hungarian Space Industry Cluster, among 30 domestic and foreign component suppliers, confirmed Hungary’s National Development ministry.

All suppliers will contribute by the 2018 supply deadline to the latest Sentinel 2-C and 2-D satellite projects in ESA’s Copernicus Earth observation programme.

Admatis, a name created from ‘Advanced Materials in Space’, was founded in 2000 and specialises in the production and use of lightweight materials. These include strong man-made honeycomb structures made with material including fibreglass, aluminium and advanced composites.

The firm also uses the Evonik Industries closed-cell rigid foam ‘Rohacell’ based on polymethacrylimide (PMI), with applications particularly in antenna components. Admatis also uses the foam for sandwich panels and structures.

Admatis, which has worked previously with NASA projects, works in close partnership with the University of Miskolc where its general manager Dr. Pál Bárczy is professor of material science.

Another of the HUNSPACE member companies that has supplied space projects is the automotive and technical parts plastics moulder and prototyping company Technoplast Group based at Fels?zsolca in north eastern Hungary.