Key Events in 2023

Strengthening the People & Culture division

Laura-Katrin Seitz starts as Beyond Gravity's new Chief People Officer. Her experience in growth and transformation and in developing leaders in complex global organizations strengthens the company and brings new impetus.

Driving digital transformation

Caroline Schmitt broadens Beyond Gravity's digital expertise as the new Chief Transformation & Strategy Officer. Oliver Grassmann, who previously held this position, takes over the Satellites division as Executive Vice President.

Orders for Ariane 6

Beyond Gravity receives its first order for the production of payload fairings for the new Ariane 6 launcher. The payload fairings, which are up to 20 meters high and weigh 1,800 kilograms, are manufactured in a state-of-the-art, semi-auto- mated process at the Emmen site in Switzerland.

Mubea takes over Aerostructures in Germany and Hungary

The German family-owned company Mubea with around 14,000 employees takes over the RUAG Aerostructures units in Germany and Hungary - as well as all of the approximately 1,000 employees. The lightweight construction specialist Mubea is in an ideal position to further promote the development of Aerostructures Germany & Hungary as the exclusive supplier for the Airbus A320 family. The closing took place in December 2023.

New headquarters in "The Circle" Zurich

Beyond Gravity's new headquarters in "The Circle" at Zurich Airport offers around 300 modern workplaces for employees from various departments. The new location promotes dialog between the units and facilitates agile collaboration.

Opening the Lisbon site

The new Innovation & Digital Hub in Lisbon (PT) enables Beyond Gravity to strengthen its leading role as an agile innovator in the space industry and drive growth. By the end of 2023, around 60 employees were already working at the site and a total of around 200 new jobs are to be created by 2025. This will make Beyond Gravity the largest space company in Portugal.

Award for Operational Excellence

RUAG Aerostructures Germany & Hungary wins the Airbus Supplier Award for Operational Excellence at the Global Supplier Conference 2023 in Toulouse, France. A strong focus on continuous improvement of product quality as well as straightforward solution and change approaches were decisive for the award.

Innovative concept aims to change space missions

A new concept for payload fairings aims  to make space missions affordable and more sustainable: Instead of completely separating the half-shells from the first stage of propulsion, as is done today, the two half-shells open, release the payload and then close again, while remaining attached to the launcher's first stage and returning to Earth for reuse.

Property in Seebach sold

A first step in the privatization process of Beyond Gravity took place in December 2023 with the partial sale of the site in Zurich-Seebach. The property was sold to the City of Zurich for CHF 140 million and will be leased back in its entirety by Beyond Gravity until at least 2030.

Pilatus takes over at Aerostructures in Emmen

At the beginning of January 2024, RUAG Aerostructures Switzerland and Pilatus Flugzeugwerke AG reached an agreement on the sale of the production infrastructure and the take-over of all employees. The business unit based in Emmen (CH) has been producing parts and compo- nents for Pilatus Aircraft since the early 1990s. These include PC-21 fuselages and the horizontal stabilizer of the PC-12.