Beyond Gravity is the space-oriented segment of the Swiss technology group RUAG. At a total of fourteen sites in Switzerland ( Zurich, Emmen and

Nyon Nyon (; outdated German: or ; outdated Italian: , ) is a municipality in Nyon District in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Ge ...

), Sweden ( Gothenburg,

Linköping Linköping () is a city in southern Sweden, with around 105,000 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Church ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

(

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

( Coswig),

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

(

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Titusville, Decatur) and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

(

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Berndorf), Beyond Gravity employs around 1,265 people and posted sales of 339 million Swiss Francs in 2019. As a supplier of

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy ...

, Beyond Gravity is also a shareholder, with 0.82% of capital in 2018.

History

Beyond Gravity is a segment of the Swiss technology group RUAG, with locations in Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Germany, USA and Austria. The company began in the late 1970s as a subcontractor of Oerlikon Contraves (later named Oerlikon Space) carrying out final assembly of payload fairings for Ariane rockets. These activities took place at Emmen, Switzerland. Over the years, it expanded primarily through acquisitions. First, the Swiss government owned company took over the companies Mecanex (Nyon) and HTS (Wallisellen). In 2008, it acquired the Swedish SAAB Space and its subsidiary Austrian Aerospace. In the following years, the company expanded further. In 2015 a site in Tampere,

was acquired. The facility in Finland has 40 employees. By 2015, RUAG Space USA (later named Beyond Gravity USA) had 4 sites in 4 different states. In 2018, 109 employees were working in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

at sites in

Decatur, Alabama Decatur (dɪˈkeɪtə(r)) is the largest city and county seat of Morgan County (with a portion also in Limestone County) in the U.S. state of Alabama. Nicknamed "The River City", it is located in northern Alabama on the banks of Wheeler La ...

;

Titusville, Florida Titusville is a city in eastern Florida and the county seat of Brevard County, Florida, United States. The city's population was 43,761 as of the 2010 United States Census. Titusville is located along the Indian River, west of Merritt Island and ...

; and Denver (Centennial), Colorado. During 2016 the company HTS GmbH in Coswig near

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

was acquired as the first site in

. After a two year consolidation period, the name was changed to RUAG Space Germany GmbH. In 2018, the Swedish branch of the company, RUAG Space AB (later named Beyond Gravity AB), had 332 employees in Gothenburg and 120 employees in

, with two subsidiaries in Austria and Finland. This branch specializes in related equipment, for example on-board computer systems, antennas and microwave electronics for satellites and adapters and separation systems for launchers. The company headquarters is located in Gothenborg, Sweden and a division for mechanical systems is situated in Linköping, Sweden. In May 2015, the company had 415 employees. It was originally started as a joint venture between SAAB and

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...

as ''Saab Ericsson Space'' until Ericsson sold its stake to SAAB together with

Saab Microwave Systems Saab Microwave systems is a Swedish company which was founded in 1956 as Ericsson Microwave Systems. The business was acquired by Saab and renamed in 2006. The main market for the company is in the sensor and electronic warfare field. Its most im ...

in 2006. On May 1, 2022, to reflect the change of visions of the company and the focus towards the highly dynamic space sector, RUAG Space was re-branded to Beyond Gravity. As a result of its European origins, Beyond Gravity has been part of many European space missions, but is also building a US market presence. Notable scientific spacecraft to use Beyond Gravity components include the Herschel Space Observatory,

Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (, ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...

Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) is a satellite which forms part of ESA's Living Planet Programme. It is intended to provide new insights into Earth's water cycle and climate. In addition, it is intended to provide improved weather foreca ...

BepiColombo BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury. The mission comprises two satellites launched together: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and ''Mio'' ...

, Galileo,

Solar Orbiter The Solar Orbiter (SolO) is a Sun-observing satellite developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). SolO, designed to obtain detailed measurements of the inner heliosphere and the nascent solar wind, will also perform close observations of th ...

Automated Transfer Vehicle The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV design was launched to orbit fiv ...

Aeolus In Greek mythology, Aeolus or Aiolos (; grc, Αἴολος , ) is a name shared by three mythical characters. These three personages are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which A ...

, and ICESat2. Beyond Gravity products also fly on the Ariane 5,

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, a ...

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pay ...

, and

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...

launch vehicles.

Payload fairings

Beyond Gravity manufactures payload fairings for a number of launchers, including

's Ariane and

rockets,

United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, ...

's Atlas 5 500 series, and for ULA's forthcoming

Vulcan Vulcan may refer to: Mythology * Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...

launcher. A payload fairing protects the payload from the environment during the ascent, ensuring cleanliness and limiting its exposure to the intense noise, vibration and aerodynamic pressure occurring during launch. Once the dynamic pressure and thermal fluxes fall below a threshold, this structure separates via explosives from the launch vehicle, exposing the payload and reducing the mass of the still accelerating vehicle. Payload fairings consist of a sandwich structure, with a core of aluminum honeycomb and facesheets of carbon fiber reinforced polymer. Whereas previous processes relied on autoclaves to cure the composite material, since 2016 the company transitioned to an Out-of-autoclave approach. With this approach, each fairing half-shell is cured in an industrial oven as one single piece. In addition to increasing the structural efficiency, this approach reduces the processing steps as it consolidates all parts at once: inner and outer skins, honeycomb sandwich core, and external cork-based thermal protection system.

References

External links

RUAG Space WebsiteWebsite RUAG Space Products
{{Authority control Aerospace companies of Sweden Aerospace companies of Switzerland Manufacturing companies based in Zürich