Beyond Gravity stimulates Swiss production of solar panel mechanisms
Beyond Gravity has expanded its Swiss production capacity for solar panel drive mechanisms (SADMs) by doubling the production area, enabling a fivefold increase in annual production from 36 to 200 units. The expansion underlines the company’s growing role in providing critical satellite hardware to the global space industry.
“These mechanisms allow satellites to continuously point their solar wings toward the sun for maximum energy generation,” explains Oliver Grassmann, Executive Vice President of Satellites at Beyond Gravity. “By doubling our production area, we have increased our production capacity fivefold. We can now produce 200 solar wing alignment mechanisms per year instead of the 36 previously. This year alone we have already delivered more units than in the past three years combined.”
Grassmann described the development as an important milestone in the company’s commitment to industrialized, modular and standardized production. “We focus on modular and standardized designs to support scalability,” he added. Beyond Gravity is already developing next-generation SADMs designed for biaxial alignment, which will enable even greater solar efficiency.
The company, a global leader in solar panel mechanisms, expects additional growth opportunities in the United States. “We sell our mechanisms worldwide, mainly in Europe and the United States,” Grassmann noted. “Should demand continue to grow in the U.S. market, we are prepared to expand production capacity at our existing facility in Titusville, Florida, where we currently conduct high-volume, highly automated production of satellite panels.”
Beyond Gravity’s mechanisms operate platforms ranging from microsatellites to large Earth observation and telecommunications spacecraft. They have featured in numerous high-profile missions, including ESA’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury, NASA’s Artemis moon program and ESA’s planetary defense mission Hera, launched in October 2024.
