Active Space Technologies is a Coimbra-based engineering company founded in 2004 that designs, builds and tests high-precision electromechanical systems, structures and thermal hardware for space, fusion and defence. It has contributed to more than 30 space missions and is a named consortium partner on two satellite programmes run by Sweden’s OHB Sweden.
Active Space Technologies, founded in 2004 and headquartered in Coimbra, designs, manufactures, integrates and tests high-precision electromechanical systems, structures and thermal subsystems for space, aeronautics, nuclear fusion and defence. It runs in-house machining, assembly-integration-and-test facilities and an ISO 7 cleanroom with thermal-vacuum capability, and has contributed hardware to more than 30 space missions including PLATO, BepiColombo, EnVision, Space Rider and ARIEL. The company is part of Portugal’s Grupo BEL, its reference shareholder since 2018, and has run a German associate company since 2007.
Its Nordic link is specific and current: Active Space is a named consortium partner on two Earth-observation programmes led by OHB Sweden in Stockholm. For the Arctic Weather Satellite it supplied flight-platform structural hardware and mechanical ground-support equipment, and it has carried that role into EPS-Sterna, OHB Sweden’s 20-satellite operational weather constellation, contributing platform struts, mechanical components and ground-support equipment alongside Sweden-rooted partner Beyond Gravity.
Space is one of the most demanding arenas in which to prove engineering credibility, and a Portuguese firm sitting inside a Swedish prime contractor’s supply chain is a strong corridor signal. It shows Portuguese precision-engineering capability winning recurring, high-specification work in the Nordic space sector — the opposite of the commodity-export stereotype.
In March 2026, OHB Sweden was awarded the €248 million prime contract for the EPS-Sterna constellation — described as a record for Sweden’s space sector — with Active Space confirmed among the consortium. (The €248 million is OHB Sweden’s total contract value, not Active Space’s revenue.) In May 2026 the PLATO mission, to which Active Space contributed thermal-control ground-support equipment, completed space-like testing.
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