SpaceTech foundation
STI was founded in 2004 by Bernhard Doll and Jost Munder.
Why did they do it? They were both DASA employees with a good job. But when Franco-British Matra Marconi Space merged with DaimlerCrysler Aerospace to become Astrium, there was good reason to leave and try something new.
One of the two founders is still with the company today: Bernhard Doll
He is the ideal model of a founder – a lot of courage, unconventional and completely driven by his ideas. Some say he is “unstoppable” and some call him a “force of nature”. He still is, even at the age of over 70.
Bernhard Doll enjoying his pension with his wife, travelling, cooking...while developing innovations for the company
SpaceTech employees 2004, their first Christmas card, the "greenhouse" & SpaceTech's first advertising leaflet
It was not easy for them at the beginning, Astrium watched them closely and made their life hard. They were probably afraid of them. Thank goodness this is over, and we have developed a good relationship with Astrium - now Airbus - since then.
The founders brought with them special set of genes: We would call it a “Newspace” spirit, long before this expression was widely used. In principle it is very easy: Concentrate on the essentials and leave away everything unnecessary. The art is to know, what is unnecessary. But with their experience Bernhard and Jost knew.
At the beginning they worked in a greenhouse not far from the today's company headquarters. First partners were Kosmotras, the brokers for the Dnepr launcher, and also Kayser Threde.
- Focus on DNEPR marketing support
- Close Cooperation with Kayser-Threde
- Customer surveys to evaluate possibilities
Employees 2004: 2 to 6
