WASHINGTON \u2014 Sodern, a French manufacturer of star trackers and cameras, is expanding into the United States with a new production facility in Colorado.<\/p>\n
Sodern, a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, announced Jan. 14 the creation of Sodern America, a new U.S.-based entity that will produce star trackers domestically for American customers.<\/p>\n
Sodern America will be led by Tiphaine Louradour, formerly an executive at United Launch Alliance, president of International Launch Services, which marketed the Proton rocket, and chief executive of Spaceflight, a launch services provider acquired by Firefly Aerospace in 2023.<\/p>\n
The company plans to establish a production facility in Englewood, a Denver suburb. The 14,000-square-foot facility will manufacture the company\u2019s Auriga star tracker and conduct testing of its higher-performance Hydra star tracker. Star trackers produced there will be exclusively for U.S. customers.<\/p>\n
Vincent Dedieu, chief executive of Sodern, said at a briefing that the U.S. market currently accounts for about one-third of the company\u2019s space-related revenue. He estimated that roughly one-quarter of all satellites worldwide, excluding SpaceX\u2019s Starlink constellation, use star trackers built by Sodern. The largest customer for Auriga was the initial OneWeb constellation, which used more than 1,200 of the star trackers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s already an important market for us,\u201d Dedieu said of the United States. \u201cIt was important for us to show our customers that we would really invest in the capabilities we offer our U.S. customers with our company there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to have the opportunity to continue growing the market and better understand and anticipate its evolution,\u201d Louradour added.<\/p>\n
Company executives said tariffs did not factor into the decision to establish Sodern America. Dedieu said he had considered a U.S. subsidiary as early as 2020, believing the company needed a presence in the United States to better serve customers there. \u201cThis is really the mindset that pushed the decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n