Manfred Fuchs (25 July 1938 in

Latsch Latsch (; it, Laces ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about northwest of the city of Bolzano. Geography As of 30 November 2010, it had a population of 5,156 and an area of .All demographi ...

, Italy – 26 April 2014 in

Kaltern an der Weinstraße Kaltern an der Weinstraße (; it, Caldaro sulla Strada del Vino ), often abbreviated to ''Kaltern'' or ''Caldaro'', is a municipality in South Tyrol in northern Italy. It is about southwest of the city of Bolzano. Geography As of 30 November 20 ...

) was an Italian-German entrepreneur and space pioneer who was the founder of the German space company

OHB OHB SE is a European multinational technology corporation. Headquartered in Bremen, Germany, the corporation consists of the two business divisions Space Systems and Aerospace + Industrial Products. A key product of the corporation is fully int ...

Life

Fuchs' family owned distilleries in South Tyrol, the brewery forest near

Merano Merano (, , ) or Meran () is a city and ''comune'' in South Tyrol, northern Italy. Generally best known for its spa resorts, it is located within a basin, surrounded by mountains standing up to above sea level, at the entrance to the Passeier V ...

, which is still family-owned, also sawmills and wine trade; moreover, his father owned a trucking company and a restaurant. He attended trade school in

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third ...

, studied in Munich at the Technical College and from 1957 in Hamburg at the Engineering School. He was a graduate engineer for aerospace engineering and development engineer at Hamburger Flugzeugbau, where he started after graduating in 1959. From 1961 Fuchs worked in Bremen at the aerospace company ERNO, an EADS predecessor. There he was in 1965 a group leader, head of department (Astro Dynamics / Preliminary Development) and department head (Director Department 1982). In 1981, he received full power of attorney. He was involved in the Ariane-1,

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

and

Spacelab Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...

projects. In 1981 he participated with his wife Christa, who initially held the shares, at the Otto Hydraulic Bremen (OHB) in Hemelinger port. OHB was at that time a small company for hydraulic and electrical works with five employees and worked mainly for the Bundeswehr. In 1985 he took over after leaving the ERNO the company OHB completely. Fuchs built the OHB from a company for satellite technology and aviation technology. Initially, the company also produced parts for the

Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...

. In 2009, the company had about 1,600 employees and is based in Technology Park at the

University of Bremen The University of Bremen (German: ''Universität Bremen'') is a public university in Bremen, Germany, with approximately 23,500 people from 115 countries. It is one of 11 institutions which were successful in the category "Institutional Strategi ...

. The company supplied reconnaissance satellites for the German

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

, including the

SAR-Lupe SAR-Lupe is Germany's first reconnaissance satellite system and is used for military purposes. SAR is an abbreviation for synthetic-aperture radar, and "Lupe" is German for magnifying glass. The SAR-Lupe program consists of five identical (770&n ...

system and satellite data for the

Frontex The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, also known as Frontex (from French: ''Frontières extérieures'' for "external borders"), is an agency of the European Union headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, exercising in coordination with the border ...

. The turnover amounted to 320 million Euros and then OHB 2009 was the third largest European aerospace group EADS and after the

Thales Group Thales Group () is a French multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures electrical systems as well as devices and equipment for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security sectors. The company is headquartered in Paris ...

. OHB stands since 2000 for high-technology Bremen orbitals. Manfred Fuchs served there as chairman.OHB Official website
/ref> The company was located in 2009 to 70% in family possession of the Fuchs family, but was listed. In 2010 the company was awarded the contract for the construction of satellites for the Galileo project, a European

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

system and the contract for the European

Meteosat The Meteosat series of satellites are geostationary meteorological satellites operated by EUMETSAT under the Meteosat Transition Programme (MTP) and the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) program. The MTP program was established to ensure the op ...

project. The subsidiary MT Aerospace in Augsburg the Fuchs Group is the largest German supplier for the Ariane rocket.

Awards and Tributes

* 1995: Bremer Entrepreneur of the Year * 1996: Honorary Professor of the

Bremen University of Applied Sciences The City University of Applied Sciences (German: ''Hochschule Bremen'') is a public ''Fachhochschule'', a University of Applied Sciences, located in Bremen, Germany. In 1982, this University evolved from the fusion of four Universities of Applied ...

* 2005: Honorary Doctor of the

Polytechnic University of Milan The Polytechnic University of Milan () is the largest technical university in Italy, with about 42,000 students. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and higher education courses in engineering, architecture and design. Founded in 186 ...

* 2009: Honorary citizen and supporter of the

* 2011:

Werner von Siemens Ring The Werner von Siemens Ring (in German orthography, Werner-von-Siemens-Ring) is one of the highest awards for technical sciences in Germany. It has been awarded from 1916 to 1941 and since 1952 about every three years by the foundation ''Stiftung ...

* 2014:

Manfred Memorial Moon Mission Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M) was the first private lunar probe to successfully fly by the Moon. It was led by LuxSpace, a child company of German OHB System, and named in honor of OHB Systems founder, professor Manfred Fuchs, who died in 20 ...

References

External links

Official OHB Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Manfred 1938 births 2014 deaths Businesspeople from South Tyrol People from Latsch Werner von Siemens Ring laureates People in the space industry German businesspeople in transport Germanophone Italian people