Inside Italian defence tech (2026)
Jul 17
Back to Companies
Paris, FranceParis, France
Products & Solutions
Astrobrake
A drag sail system that deploys autonomously at the end of a satellite's operational life to increase atmospheric drag and achieve compliant deorbit in under five years for orbits up to 800 km. The Astrobrake-S model stows in 0.75U, weighs 900g and operates without requiring power or commands from the host spacecraft. It uses redundant trigger lines and can be configured with a time-delay or commanded via a 2-wire interface.
Solar Sail
A propulsion system that harnesses solar photon pressure to accelerate spacecraft without propellant, enabling long-duration missions to destinations unreachable by conventional propulsion. The sail deploys via a spin-deployment mechanism using lightweight composite booms and ultra-thin reflective film. Target use cases include planetary survey swarms, near-Earth asteroid mapping, solar weather monitoring at Lagrange points and cargo delivery missions to the Moon and Mars.
About
Gama is a Paris-based space propulsion company founded in 2020 that develops deployable sail technology for two distinct applications: deorbiting satellites that have reached end-of-life, and propelling spacecraft through deep space using sunlight. The company's stated mission is to protect access to low Earth orbit through responsible deorbiting while enabling exploration beyond the inner solar system.
Offices
Paris, FranceBacked by
BpifranceCNESKima VenturesPossible Ventures
Customers & Partners
AerospacelabCNES (French Space Agency)CMA CGMNanoAvionics
Timeline
2025-11
Astrobrake drag sail flew on its first commercial mission aboard the IPERLITE hyperspectral satellite launched by Aerospacelab for VITO with ESA support.
2023-01
Gama Alpha CubeSat launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, deploying a 73 m² solar sail in LEO. Europe's first solar sail mission.
2022-03
Raised €2 million in seed funding from Bpifrance, CNES, Kima Ventures, Possible Ventures and angel investors to build and launch a solar sail demonstration mission.
2020
Founded in Paris by Louis de Gouyon Matignon, Thibaud Elziere and Andrew Nutter.
Open Positions (2)
Products & Solutions
Astrobrake
A drag sail system that deploys autonomously at the end of a satellite's operational life to increase atmospheric drag and achieve compliant deorbit in under five years for orbits up to 800 km. The Astrobrake-S model stows in 0.75U, weighs 900g and operates without requiring power or commands from the host spacecraft. It uses redundant trigger lines and can be configured with a time-delay or commanded via a 2-wire interface.
Solar Sail
A propulsion system that harnesses solar photon pressure to accelerate spacecraft without propellant, enabling long-duration missions to destinations unreachable by conventional propulsion. The sail deploys via a spin-deployment mechanism using lightweight composite booms and ultra-thin reflective film. Target use cases include planetary survey swarms, near-Earth asteroid mapping, solar weather monitoring at Lagrange points and cargo delivery missions to the Moon and Mars.
About
Gama is a Paris-based space propulsion company founded in 2020 that develops deployable sail technology for two distinct applications: deorbiting satellites that have reached end-of-life, and propelling spacecraft through deep space using sunlight. The company's stated mission is to protect access to low Earth orbit through responsible deorbiting while enabling exploration beyond the inner solar system.
Offices
Paris, FranceBacked by
BpifranceCNESKima VenturesPossible Ventures
Customers & Partners
AerospacelabCNES (French Space Agency)CMA CGMNanoAvionics
Timeline
2025-11
Astrobrake drag sail flew on its first commercial mission aboard the IPERLITE hyperspectral satellite launched by Aerospacelab for VITO with ESA support.
2023-01
Gama Alpha CubeSat launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, deploying a 73 m² solar sail in LEO. Europe's first solar sail mission.
2022-03
Raised €2 million in seed funding from Bpifrance, CNES, Kima Ventures, Possible Ventures and angel investors to build and launch a solar sail demonstration mission.
2020
Founded in Paris by Louis de Gouyon Matignon, Thibaud Elziere and Andrew Nutter.
Latest reports
Explore more
Explore more
Similar Companies
Aerospacelab
Designs, manufactures and operates end-to-end satellite systems, with a vertically integrated platform family built for constellation-scale production.
5 roles
Blackshark.ai
Builds AI infrastructure that converts satellite and aerial imagery into 3D world models and operational intelligence for defence simulation, autonomous systems and disaster response.
4 roles
R
Rocket Factory Augsburg
Develops the RFA ONE small launch vehicle and Redshift orbital transfer vehicle to deliver satellites to any orbit from European spaceports.
4 roles
VAKE
Maritime intelligence platform that uses machine learning on Sentinel-2, SAR and AIS data to detect, identify and track dark vessels for governments and offshore asset owners. KSAT acquired a 70% majority stake in 2024 to scale the platform for national maritime situational awareness.
Gama Space owns its name, logo and all referenced trademarks — used here for identification only. Claim, update or remove this profile.