Jena-Optronik GmbH
Airbus-owned Jena maker of star sensors and the RVS 3000 docking lidars used on Cygnus, MEV-1/-2 and Northrop Grumman's robotic MRV servicer.
Jena-Optronik GmbH is a German space-sensor manufacturer at Otto-Eppenstein-Strasse 3 in Jena, Thuringia, with about 250 employees. The company was founded in 1991 by Deutsche Aerospace (now Airbus Defence and Space) and Jenoptik and began operating in April 1992. Its roots go back to the space work of VEB Carl Zeiss Jena, which built the MKF-6 multispectral camera in the 1970s and its first star sensors in the early 1980s. Jenoptik later held 100 percent of the company before Airbus DS took full ownership, and today Jena-Optronik describes itself as a subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space. It is certified to DIN EN 9100:2018. Customers include major space agencies and most large spacecraft builders in Europe, Japan, the US and Canada. Supplier awards include Maxar's Supplier Excellence Award (2016-2020), Lockheed Martin's High Five Award (2018) and Boeing's Supplier of the Year (2006). Peter Kapell is CEO.
The company has four product lines: star sensors (ASTRO CL, ASTRO XP, ASTRO APS and star stimulators), cameras and camera systems (ASTROtir, ASTROhead Cam, ASTRO XP Cam, an SSA sensor suite, ASTROlas and MUATS), rendezvous and docking lidars, and space optics and electronics. The lidars are the most relevant line for robotic servicing.
Jena-Optronik began lidar work in the 1990s with an ESA prototype rendezvous and docking sensor (RVS). That sensor flew in 1997 on Space Shuttle missions STS-84 and STS-86 to the Mir station. Its operational RVS then guided automated docking for ESA's ATV, starting with Jules Verne in 2008, and also served Japanese and US cargo vehicles to the ISS, including Northrop Grumman's Cygnus. The RVS 3000 is a time-of-flight scanning lidar that steers laser pulses with a gimbaled mirror and measures range, relative velocity and line-of-sight angles to retroreflectors from about 1,500 m. It first flew operationally in April 2019 on Cygnus NG-11, guiding the spacecraft to its berthing position next to the ISS so the station's robotic arm could capture it.
The RVS 3000-3D adds a reconfigurable space FPGA and pose-estimation algorithms that work out a target's full six-degree-of-freedom attitude from 3D point clouds, without needing retroreflectors. A prototype flew as the LIRIS-2 experiment on ATV-5 in 2014. The RVS 3000-3D, together with the company's Visual Sensor Suite camera and ASTRO star sensors, enabled Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle-1 to dock with Intelsat 901 in February 2020, and MEV-2 to dock with Intelsat 10-02 in 2021. Neither of those satellites was designed to be docked with. The newer RVS 3000-X adds algorithm upgrades and in-orbit software updates, so one sensor can approach several targets in turn, or output raw point clouds for processing elsewhere. Jena-Optronik markets it for station resupply, refueling, in-space assembly and debris removal. An RVS 3000-X is integrated on Northrop Grumman's Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV), the two-arm robotic servicer that launched on 21 July 2026 with three Mission Extension Pods. The RVS 3000-L variant is intended for future landings on planets and moons. A closed-loop stimulation unit lets customers test the whole RVS 3000 family with simulated point clouds in hardware-in-the-loop setups.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
RVS 3000
Scanning time-of-flight rendezvous and docking lidar that measures range, velocity and angles to retroreflectors from about 1,500 m; first operational flight on Cygnus NG-11 (April 2019).
RVS 3000-3D
3D imaging lidar with FPGA-based 6-DoF pose estimation of uncooperative targets; enabled Northrop Grumman MEV-1 and MEV-2 to dock with Intelsat satellites not built for docking.
RVS 3000-X
Latest RVS lidar with upgraded algorithms and in-orbit software updates for multi-target RPOD; integrated on Northrop Grumman's two-arm Mission Robotic Vehicle, launched July 2026.
RVS 3000-L
Landing variant of the RVS 3000 lidar family, intended to support future landings on planets and moons.
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Contact Jena-Optronik GmbH
WEBSITE
https://jena-optronik.dePHONE
+49 3641 200-110HEADQUARTERS
Germany
Company Facts
Founded
1991
Primary Role
Component Supplier
Company Size
-
Primary Region
Europe
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
Subsidiary / Acquired
Funding Total
-
Certifications & Memberships
