đź“Ś Executive Briefing: Core Takeaways
- Formal MoU Signed: OHB Hellas, OHB SE, and FORTH formalize Crete expansion at Heraklion headquarters.
- SPACE-Crete Centre of Excellence: €15M EU funding awarded; ranked 1st in Greece and 2nd in all Europe with DLR & CEA.
- Advanced Infrastructure: Integrated cleanrooms, €25M RRF-funded facilities, and optical link testing at Skinakas Observatory.
- Industrial Focus: Design, assembly, integration and testing of space electronics and orbital HPC systems for defense and civil clients.
OHB Hellas has taken a major step in its expansion on Crete. On Thursday, 3 September 2026, the company — together with its German parent group, OHB SE — signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH) at FORTH’s headquarters in Heraklion. The agreement formalises a collaboration between the two organisations that has been building since 2020, and sets out a shared path for developing space technologies on the island.
🎙️ Strategic Statements from the Signatories
Dr. Katerina Panopoulou, Managing Director of OHB Hellas, put her signature to the Memorandum alongside Dr. Markus Moeller, Chief Strategy Officer of OHB SE, and Prof. Vassilis Charmandaris, President of FORTH. The ceremony drew a high-level audience, including Crete’s Regional Governor, Stavros Arnaoutakis; Konstantinos Karantzalos, Secretary General of Telecommunications & Post, standing in for the Minister of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence, Dimitris Papastergiou; and the German Ambassador to Greece, Andreas Kindl.
The MoU builds on solid ground OHB Hellas has broken on the island. Since opening its branch at the Science and Technology Park of Crete (STEP-C) in Heraklion in 2025, the company has assembled a dedicated local team, including Project Managers and Software Test Engineers working alongside FORTH’s institutes on projects spanning quantum sensing, photonics, and onboard machine learning. This engagement extends a five-year relationship that includes the 2022 milestone flight of the first Greek-developed AI algorithm aboard ESA’s OPS-SAT, and was further spotlighted during the 7th ESA Quantum Technology Conference hosted at FORTH. The new agreement gives that partnership an official, long-term industrial framework.
Behind OHB Hellas stands OHB SE, one of Europe’s most established space companies. Over 45 years, the German group has built a business with roughly 4,000 employees and annual revenue of €1.3 billion, and it was recently entrusted with a contract worth close to €1 billion to build eighteen satellite platforms for the EU’s IRIS² secure connectivity constellation. OHB’s portfolio spans the full value chain; satellites, launch systems, ground segments and data services supporting Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications, reconnaissance and exploration missions for customers across Europe and beyond, with strong heritage transferred from flagship ESA missions such as PLATO and LISA.
FORTH, for its part, is Greece’s largest research organisation, with ten institutes and an international research footprint. For OHB Hellas, the appeal lies in FORTH’s concentration of scientific talent and infrastructure on Crete itself, from microelectronics clean rooms and high-performance computing to the Skinakas Observatory in Anogia, resources the company intends to draw on as it turns Crete into a genuine European “Space Island”.
đź‘Ą Distinguished Dignitaries & Delegation
Also present were Dr. Georgios Kaloutsakis, Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Heraklion; Dr. Emmanuel Rammos, President of the Hellenic Space Center (HSC); Pantelis Tzortzakis, CEO of the Hellenic Centre for Defence Innovation; Sabine von der Recke, Head of Communications and Public Relations at OHB SE; Mathieu Bernou, Managing Director & CTO of OHB Hellas; Prof. Panagiotis Tsakalides, Vice-Chairman of FORTH’s Board of Directors and Director of its Institute of Computer Science; and Prof. Vasiliki Pavlidou, Director of FORTH’s Institute of Astrophysics.
🚀 SPACE-Crete: Centre of Excellence & High-Tech Facilities
The agreement also lends further weight to “SPACE-Crete”, a joint initiative with Germany’s DLR and France’s CEA that ranked first among Greek proposals and second across Europe for EU funding, securing €15 million. SPACE-Crete’s ambition is a self-sustaining Centre of Excellence on the island, drawing on FORTH’s Institutes of Computer Science, Astrophysics, and Electronic Structure and Laser, and housed at FORTH’s new Heraklion facility, itself built with €25 million from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Its research agenda covers smart space systems, orbital High-Performance Computing (OHPC), ground-to-space optical and quantum communications, and quantum sensors, with clear applications for both civil and defence customers.
Following the signing, the OHB and FORTH delegations toured FORTH’s research laboratories and newly completed facilities, before visiting the Skinakas Observatory in Anogia, operated in part by FORTH’s Institute of Astrophysics.
For OHB Hellas, the MoU is more than a ceremonial handshake, it is a concrete step toward the company’s goal of turning Crete into a genuine centre for the design, manufacturing, integration and testing of space electronics and systems in Greece. Backed by OHB Group’s industrial scale and drawing on FORTH’s research strength, OHB Hellas aims to translate that combination into exportable technology, new jobs, and a stronger strategic position for both Crete and Greece within Europe’s space sector.
