Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Holding its own against aerospace giants like pan-European Airbus Space or French-Italian Thales Alenia, German minnow OHB has carved out a space as a national champion in satellite building.
Its latest coup was claiming a hefty slice of business from contracts signed in early July by the European Space Agency (ESA) as it builds up its Earth observation programme known as Copernicus.
Among the six new satellites, an OHB-built orbiter will keep an eye on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions stemming from human activity over the coming decades.
The aim: offering policymakers the data they need to find ways of reducing greenhouse gas output.
"Some space missions are mostly relevant to science. At OHB, we like projects that help people in their everyday lives," chief executive Marco Fuchs told AFP.
Thales Alenia may have secured the lion's share of ESA orders this time around, but OHB is "ideally positioned" to play a role in "permanent observation of the Earth in environmental, climate and security terms", Fuchs said.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday July 19 2020, @06:30PM
Hey is that a satellite in your pocket or are you just ... oh it's a satellite.
There is very little in the article about the actual satellites, as far as I can tell there are not even specs or anything, tho and more about politics and business and who own what and why. Weird ...
(Score: 5, Funny) by Opportunist on Sunday July 19 2020, @06:48PM (1 child)
In Germany, even the tiniest businessman can shoot for the stars!
(shows that word order is important if you want to avoid being misunderstood)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2020, @07:17PM
"You might just as well say," added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, "that 'I breathe when I sleep' is the same thing as 'I sleep when I breathe'!" "It is the same thing with you," said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute.
-- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Kitsune008 on Sunday July 19 2020, @08:08PM (5 children)
Okay, let's try to sort this out:
a) we have pocket sized Germans making satellites
b) we have a pocket sized German satellite makers making satellites
c) we have pocket sized German satellites being made
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
f) some of the above
Wait. What? Minnows! WTF?!?
Fsck it. The pocket sized whatevers and the minnows will have to sort this one out...I'm outta here.
(Score: 4, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday July 19 2020, @09:26PM
I think when they say "Pocket-Sized German Satellite Maker" they mean elves.
It is cold at the North Pole, and Germany is nice, so I suppose they have just emigrated and changed careers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2020, @10:56PM
Is this like the Brits being separated from Europe by under-North Sea DNA? All over again?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @01:31AM (1 child)
Is it really that hard for some people to infer that it's a small company?
Sure the headline writers could just say "small company", but why cater to the impaired?
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Monday July 20 2020, @05:34AM
I don't think there's anyone who really doesn't understand what is meant. But intentionally misreading sentences is fun!
And now excuse me, I've got to get an arrow to make my time flies happy.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 4, Funny) by maxwell demon on Monday July 20 2020, @05:28AM
Of course the correct answer is that German satellite makers grow from shoots, and the headline tells you about pocket-sized shoots for stars. After all, headlines are not always sentences.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday July 19 2020, @10:14PM
>and security terms
Willkommen gestaposat
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday July 19 2020, @10:39PM (2 children)
The last time a German rocket scientist was shooting for the stars, he hit London instead.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Sunday July 19 2020, @11:20PM (1 child)
When he hit London, he was aiming for London.
When the Americans adjusted his aim to the stars [wikipedia.org], he hit the Moon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday July 20 2020, @05:36AM
He was aiming for the stars when he hit the moon? Obviously he missed Hollywood by a very large margin! ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by aim on Monday July 20 2020, @11:28AM
Better to shoot for the stars than at them, as rednecks probably would.
OHB isn't exactly an unknown quantity, they have a good reputation. I don't think ESA would've given them this contract otherwise.