Modular reusable spacecraft and propulsion systems for orbital operations
The Exploration Company designs and manufactures reusable spacecraft (the Nyx vehicle family) and propulsion systems for orbital logistics. The tech stack—FPGA, VHDL, Verilog, ANSYS, Siemens NX, alongside aerospace-grade tooling (Nastran, Thermal Desktop, DO-178 compliance frameworks)—reflects a hardware-first, safety-critical engineering culture. Active adoption of Python, Intune, and Endpoint Manager suggests infrastructure modernization for a 200+ person engineering org scaling across 8 countries.
Notable leadership hires: Head of Avionics, Chief Engineer, Head of Operations, Site Director, Public Affairs Lead
The Exploration Company, founded in 2021 and based in Gauting, Bavaria, develops modular reusable spacecraft and propulsion systems for orbital refueling and logistics. The product line centers on the Nyx orbital vehicle family, complemented by the Storm propulsion system and high-thrust rocket engines. Engineering dominates the org (192 of 255 active roles), with active hiring for avionics leads, chief engineers, and site directors across Germany, Belgium, Italy, the US, Luxembourg, France, Peru, and the UAE. Near-term priorities include Nyx flight software certification, EMC verification, and a propulsion test site, alongside internal challenges in NDT capability buildout, ERP migration, and on-time delivery execution in a sector moving at hardware-development pace.
Modular reusable spacecraft (Nyx orbital vehicle family), the Storm propulsion system, and high-thrust rocket engines for orbital logistics and refueling operations. Active projects include flight software certification, EMC verification, and a propulsion systems test site.
Hardware design: FPGA, VHDL, Verilog, Siemens NX, ANSYS, Nastran, Thermal Desktop, Altium Designer. Control systems: Beckhoff TwinCAT, RTOS, AUTOSAR, CAN Bus, TCP/IP. Development: C++, Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW, Git, GitHub. Compliance frameworks: DO-178, PTP. ERP: Odoo.
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