On 20 November, at the ESA stand at Space Tech Expo Europe 2025 trade fair in Bremen, Germany, ESA presented three space companies with this year’s prestigious awards for excellence and innovation.

OHB (Germany), a leading European aerospace company received the Excellence Award as prime contractor to ESA for its excellent work for ESA’s Plato mission.

HULD (Finland), now part of Gofore Group, is a software engineering company specialised in safety-critical software and complex data processing. It received the Excellence Award as sub-contractor to ESA based particularly on its technical work and proactiveness in the frame of the Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 missions.

Excellence awards are awarded to those companies making a significant beneficial impact on the project’s objectives or having significant value from a technical and financial perspective. These nominations are based on feedback from the members of ESA projects working directly with the suppliers.