Jena-Optronik

Jena-Optronik GmbH is a German precision optics and space instruments company headquartered in Jena, Thuringia, developing star sensors (star trackers), Earth sensors, and rendezvous sensors for satellites and spacecraft. The company's ASTRO series of star trackers are among the most widely used attitude determination sensors for scientific and commercial satellites in Europe and globally, providing accurate three-axis attitude information to spacecraft by identifying star patterns against an onboard star catalog. Jena-Optronik has supplied star sensors to numerous ESA, DLR, and commercial satellite programs including Envisat, Mars Express, Venus Express, Galileo navigation satellites, and many commercial GEO communications satellites. The company was founded in the 1990s as a spin-off of Zeiss, building on Jena's centuries-long heritage in precision optics and lens manufacturing, and became a subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space.