The successful conclusion of NASA’s Artemis II mission this week marks a significant technical validation for German aerospace group OHB SE. Its subsidiary, MT Aerospace, supplied the end caps for the fuel tanks of the SLS rocket that propelled the Orion capsule on its journey. With the crew having set a new distance record of 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing Apollo 13, the flawless performance strengthens OHB’s credibility for future contracts with the space agency. The capsule is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on April 10 at approximately 20:07 EDT.
This spacefaring milestone coincides with robust operational momentum on the ground. For the 2025 fiscal year, OHB reported a 21 percent increase in total output to approximately EUR 1.25 billion, while its adjusted operating result climbed to EUR 84 million. The company’s order backlog reached a historic high of EUR 3.19 billion, representing an increase of roughly EUR 800 million year-on-year. Order intake also surged by 24 percent to around EUR 2.1 billion.
Management has set ambitious medium-term targets, raising its goals during a Capital Markets Day in January 2026. The company is targeting total output of EUR 1.4 billion for 2026 and EUR 1.7 billion for 2027, with the aim of surpassing the EUR 2 billion mark from 2028 onward. A recent major contract win supports this growth narrative: OHB Sweden secured a EUR 248 million order to build 20 small satellites for the EUMETSAT Polar System – Sterna program, the largest single satellite contract in Swedish space history.
Beyond NASA, MT Aerospace reinforces its industrial position as Germany’s largest supplier for the Ariane 6 program, holding over ten percent of the work packages. Airbus has confirmed that follow-on modules for the Artemis program are already in development, with ESM-3 slated to test rendezvous and docking capabilities in 2027.
However, a significant regulatory overhang tempers the outlook. Germany’s Federal Cartel Office is reviewing the planned joint venture between OHB and Rheinmetall Digital for the SATCOMBw Stage 4 communications network for the Bundeswehr. This project carries an estimated total value between EUR 8 and 10 billion. Uncertainty surrounding the regulatory timeline has previously triggered share price declines of over nine percent, making it a dominant near-term factor for the stock.
CEO Marco Fuchs has explicitly ruled out a delisting, emphasizing that the stock market listing ensures transparency, customer trust, and access to capital for further expansion. Investors will get their next glimpse of the company’s progress when OHB publishes its Q1 2026 results on May 7. This report will indicate how effectively the record order backlog is translating into concrete earnings and whether the growth pace from 2025 has been maintained.
