HPS GmbH

HPS GmbH (High Performance Space Structure Systems) is a Munich, Germany-based spacecraft antenna and thermal hardware specialist founded in 2000, providing European satellite programs with precision solid reflector antennas, large deployable reflector antenna subsystems, and passive thermal control hardware — operating as a niche systems supplier to major European primes (Airbus Defence & Space, Thales Alenia Space, OHB) and ESA for mission-critical antenna and thermal components.

HPS's solid reflector antennas range from compact high-gain antennas for spacecraft TT&C uplink/downlink and scientific instrument beamforming to larger direct radiating and offset-fed parabolic reflectors for communications satellites. The company's engineering capability spans RF performance prediction (using electromagnetic simulation tools including GRASP), structural design for launch environment survival, and thermal stability design ensuring the reflector maintains its parabolic shape within allowable distortion limits across the orbital thermal environment (-180°C to +150°C cycling in shade-to-sun transitions).

Large deployable reflector subsystems represent HPS's most technically demanding product area: foldable antenna structures that stow compactly within the satellite launch configuration and then unfurl to produce apertures several meters in diameter after satellite separation. These deployable reflectors use carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) ribs, tension cables, and precision release mechanisms, requiring rigorous structural analysis and test verification to guarantee deployment reliability on orbit.

Flight heritage includes contributions to the Heinrich Hertz satellite (Germany's geostationary technology demonstration satellite, testing high-frequency Q-band and V-band communications for future beyond-5G applications) and ESA's Euclid space telescope — launched in 2023 to map the large-scale structure of the universe through weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering measurements, for which HPS provided antenna hardware for the satellite's communications system.

Thermal control hardware from HPS includes multi-layer insulation (MLI) blankets, thermal radiators, heat pipes, and precision thermal management structures for temperature-sensitive instruments and batteries. The company's dual competency in antennas and thermal systems reflects the physical overlap between these domains — large antennas must be thermally designed to maintain dimensional stability, and thermal radiators often share structural integration requirements with antenna mounting.