Beyond Gravity

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Beyond Gravity
Company typeJoint-stock company
IndustrySpace technology
Founded2022
Headquarters
Zürich, Switzerland
Key people
CEO Andre Wall
Revenue
  • Increase 339 Mio. CHF (2019)
  • 377 Mio. CHF (2018)
  • 365 Mio. CHF (2017)
  • 300 Mio. CHF (2016)
  • 283 Mio. CHF (2010)
Number of employees
1265 (2019)
Footnotes / references
24.10.2019

Beyond Gravity is the space-oriented segment of the Swiss technology group

Zurich, Emmen and Nyon), Sweden (Gothenburg, Linköping), Finland (Tampere), Germany (Coswig), USA (Denver, Titusville, Decatur) and Austria (Vienna, Berndorf), Beyond Gravity employs around 1,265 people and posted sales of 339 million Swiss Francs in 2019.[1][2] As a supplier of Arianespace, Beyond Gravity is also a shareholder, with 0.82% of capital in 2018.[3]

History

Formally known as RUAG Space USA. Beyond Gravity is a segment of the Swiss technology group RUAG, with locations in Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Germany, USA and Austria.[4]

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, Finland 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 at sites in Decatur, Alabama; Titusville, Florida; and Denver (Centennial), Colorado. During 2016 the company HTS GmbH in Coswig near Dresden was acquired as the first site in Germany. After a two-year consolidation period, the name was changed to RUAG Space Germany GmbH.[5]

In 2018, the Swedish branch of the company, RUAG Space AB (later named Beyond Gravity AB), had 332 employees in

Saab Microwave Systems in 2006.[6]

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.[7]

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

Aeolus, and ICESat2. Beyond Gravity products also fly on the Ariane 5, Vega, Falcon 9, and Atlas
launch vehicles.

Payload fairings

Beyond Gravity manufactures

Vulcan launcher.[10]

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.[citation needed]

Payload fairings consist of a sandwich structure, with a core of

autoclaves to cure the composite material, since 2016 the company transitioned to an Out-of-autoclave approach.[11] 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.[12]

References

  1. ^ Annual Report RUAG Holding AG, 2019 https://annualreport.ruag.com/2019/sites/ar19/files/media_document/2020-04/GB_RUAG_2019_EN.pdf
  2. ^ "RUAG annual report 2019".
  3. ^ "Company profile – Repartition of Arianespace capital". Arianespace. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  4. ^ "Our story. | Beyond Gravity". beyondgravity.com. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
  5. ^ "RUAG Location finder".
  6. ^ Berg, Martin (2006-06-12). "Ericsson säljer Ericsson Microwave Systems till Saab" (in Swedish). Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved 2008-11-09. [dead link]
  7. ^ "Questions & Answers Rebranding Beyond Gravity | RUAG". www.ruag.com. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
  8. ^ a b "Separation test of a Vega fairing". European Space Agency. 17 October 2019. RUAG Space in Switzerland manufactures fairings for Europe's Ariane and Vega launchers
  9. ^ Stephen Clark (8 August 2019). "Atlas 5 launch timeline on the AEHF 5 mission". Spaceflight Now.
  10. ^ Jeff Foust (15 April 2016). "Ruag to make payload fairings for ULA's Vulcan". Space News.
  11. ^ "Faster and cheaper into space | Annual report 2017". annualreport.ruag.com. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
  12. ^ "Size-unlimited OOA composite process enables next-gen system". www.compositesworld.com. Retrieved 2022-05-02.

External links

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