Drees & Sommer to project manage new satellite factory in Berlin

The development will contain 5,000-sq-m of laboratory, cleanroom and office space for the assembly, integration and testing of next-generation satellites. At its centre will be ISO Class 6 and Class 7 cleanrooms.

Drees & Sommer will be responsible for cost, technical consulting, schedule and quality management. The company will work with all trades to ensure that factors such as humidity, temperature and particle concentration consistently meet stringent cleanroom requirements.

Planet Labs will assemble and test components such as sensors, electronics and optical systems, including telescopes and cameras, for its new Pelican satellites.

They create high-resolution imagery at short intervals for monitoring natural disasters, environmental developments or infrastructure projects.

The company says the level of detail captured allows documentation of marine pollution, climate change, wildfires, flooding and damage to bridges, dams and energy infrastructure.

In 2022, the company’s satellite data helped identify elevated chlorophyll concentrations near the Polish city of Opole as the reason for fish dying in the Oder River.

Martin Polak, Planet Labs Germany’s managing director, said: “Our European Space Hub brings together satellite manufacturing, engineering, mission operations and business operations under one roof.

“This will help us turn innovation into operational capabilities more quickly while strengthening Europe’s long-term technological and industrial capabilities in space.

“The earlier environmental changes are detected, the sooner appropriate countermeasures can be taken. Our satellites provide the critical information needed to make that possible.”

Planet labs was founded in 2010 by three former NASA scientists and operates the world’s largest Earth observation satellite fleet. In 2025 the company signed a €240m satellite intelligence contract with the German federal government.