Polish satellite maker Creotech plans tenfold capacity boost, warns of Europe’s US rocket reliance

By Stefan Gardawski and Marta Maciag

SOPOT, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Polish satellite maker Creotech Instruments CRI1.WA plans to raise its production capacity by up to tenfold by 2029, CEO Grzegorz Brona said on Friday, while warning Europe would remain reliant on US rockets to put its satellites into orbit for years.

Brona spoke with Reuters in Sopot two days after Ukraine said SpaceX SPCX.O had curbed its use of Starshield, the military-grade version of the Starlink satellite network. Shares of Eutelsat ETL.PA, widely seen as Europe's leading challenger to Starlink, jumped 23% on Wednesday and closed the week 28% higher.

Asked whether European industry could build an alternative to Starlink, Brona said the continent could produce thousands of satellites and still have no one to launch them.

"Launch vehicles are now becoming a means of political pressure on the European Union in the hands of (US President) Donald Trump's administration," he said.

Europe carried out 8 of the world's 324 orbital launches last year, against 193 by the US. Starlink alone accounted for more than 60% of active satellites, according to European Space Agency data.

Creotech, which does not build rockets, has kept US technology out of its satellites to avoid US arms export rules, under which Washington can block sales of a satellite containing even a small American part.

Yet it still relies on US rockets. SpaceX carried all four satellites Creotech built for Poland's MikroGlob military programme into orbit.

"Of course, Europe is waking up," Brona said, pointing to new European rocket programmes including a German launcher, but added that building enough rockets would probably take a decade.

Separately, he said programmes for several large EU satellite constellations — fleets of spacecraft working as one system — were already under way, and that Creotech aimed to bid in their tenders.

The satellite maker plans to open a factory in 2029 able to make 40 satellites a year of mixed types, or up to 100 of one model, compared with about 10 at its current plant.

Brona added Creotech would start opening subsidiaries in France and Germany in the coming weeks and was aiming to build 500-kg satellites by 2032.

Revenue for next year is secured, and the company will probably sign several more contracts within six months, Brona said.