Satellite Production in Berlin: Complex Construction Project for New Space Future Market

Berlin, Germany/San Francisco, United States, August 3, 2026. From smart phone navigation up to climate research – promptly available and highly valuable data from satellites are becoming increasingly important. A new hub for this type of future technology will be built in Germany’s capital city: Planet Labs, a German-US space sector company, is constructing a modern production facility for satellite components and telescopes in Berlin. Drees & Sommer SE will be managing the ambitious project. The consulting firm specializes in consulting services focused on construction, real estate and infrastructure.

Laboratories, cleanrooms and offices for the assembly, integration and testing of satellites of the latest generation will be realized on an area of around 5,000 square meters. Highly specialized ISO 6 and ISO 7 cleanrooms will be the core of the new complex. Planet Laps will produce and test high-tech components for the new Pelican Satellites in Berlin in future. This technology provides highly resolved short-interval image data that are available to users almost in real time. In this way, changes to the planet are becoming more quickly identifiable – for instance in the event of natural catastrophes, environmental changes or for infrastructure projects. Thanks to the high level of detail, things such as damage to bridges, dams and barrages, or power plants can be detected. The data also helps to document ocean pollution and analyze the consequences of climate change, forest fires or floods.

Martin Polak, Managing Director at Planet Labs Germany, commented: “The expansion of our European headquarters by constructing a new European Space Hub in Berlin is an important milestone of Planet’s European growth strategy. At our European Space Hub, we will have satellite manufacturing, engineering, mission operations and business operations under one roof. We are creating the basis for being able to promptly translate innovation into operational capacity, and by doing so, we are strengthening Europe’s technological and industrial capacity in the space industry in the long term.“

Teamwork across Continents

The construction project is highly complex. In order to create the new production and laboratory environment, international project teams from Germany and the United States are working together across multiple time zones. Drees & Sommer will be in charge of project monitoring throughout all stages of the project, as well as the management of cost, deadlines and quality. In addition, the company will provide technical advice and coordinate all participants in the planning and execution of the project, and manage the interfaces in order to align and ensure compliance with the requirements for laboratories, cleanrooms and high-production areas. 

“Effective interaction and interplay between all parties involved is particularly important in specialized real estate projects with ambitious schedules. 

Thanks to the experience gained from laboratory, cleanroom and high-tech production projects, our teams of experts are well-prepared to ensure that the quality targets, schedules and technical requirements will be reliably coordinated and met,“ said Rojda Emre, who heads the team at Drees & Sommer.

Taking cleanrooms as an example: the specialists from Drees & Sommer coordinate the individual trades, ensuring that factors such as humidity, temperature and particle concentration always fulfill the strict guidelines for satellite manufacture. This enables Planet Labs to assemble and test components, such as sensors, electronics and optical systems (e.g. telescopes and cameras), under controlled conditions before they begin their journey into space.

Berlin as European Space Hot Spot 

Planet Labs, founded by three former NASA scientists in San Francisco in 2010, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company has had its European headquarters on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin for more than 10 years. Up to 70 employees will be added to the around 150-strong team in Berlin. Planet Labs entered into a contract with the federal government for satellite reconnaissance worth 240 million euros only in 2025.

Planet Labs operates the world’s largest fleet of earth observation satellites. Their many applications range from the monitoring of delivery chains and agricultural areas to analyzing migrant movements for humanitarian aid purposes. The satellite data is also useful for national security and defense – for instance, to identify military installations.

Another example: satellite data from Planet Laps helped to establish the causes of the massive fish kills in the Oder River in central Europe in August 2022. With the help of the data, experts ascertained that chlorophyll concentrations near the Polish city of Opole were elevated a whole month beforehand. Martin Polak explained: ”The earlier ecological changes are identified, the faster countermeasures can be taken. So, our satellites really provide vital information.” 

New Markets: Competition in the Space Domain

Planet Labs in Berlin represents a global trend: whether satellites, rockets or robots for space missions – according to a study entitled ‘The space catch-up’, carried out by the management consulting firm Roland Berger, the new space economy is an important market of the future[i]. The experts anticipate that the global market of space-enabled solutions will grow to 2,000 billion euros by 2040, an increase by four times from the current figure of almost 500 billion euros.

According to the study, investment in highly specialized hubs, like Berlin’s Charlottenburg district, is a prerequisite for securing Europe’s market share in the long term. What the analysis clearly shows: in order to successfully compete with the United States and China, Germany needs a new mindset and enthusiasm for the potential offered by the new space market. 

“The new space sector needs individual construction solutions, such as cleanrooms and laboratories that meet the highest standards of the industry. We want to actively bring in our expertise and help shape these spaces of the future – from location evaluation through design up to implementation and operation,” Rojda Emre pointed out.