Europe builds the satellites. The Middle East increasingly wants to buy, build, and launch them. The question is who bridges the two markets.
Frank M. Salzgeber is a Partner and Co-Founder of Nadir Space Venture and Chairman of the Founding Committee of D-Orbit Saudi Arabia. He serves as an advisory board member at Alpine Space Ventures and advises several New Space companies across Europe and the Gulf. Before entering the investment and advisory world, Salzgeber spent 3.5 years as Vice Governor for Space at Saudi Arabia’s Communications, Space and Technology Commission, where he led ecosystem development, policy, regulation, venture capital strategy, and human capital programs for the Kingdom’s space sector.
That Saudi role followed nearly two decades at the European Space Agency, where Salzgeber built and ran the ESA Business Incubation Centre network, the largest space startup incubation network in Europe. His team initiated over 380 technology transfers, supported more than 1,500 startups, and facilitated over 1,000 downstream business cases. He also headed ESA’s Technology Transfer Program Office and its Commercial Development unit for Human Spaceflight and Exploration.
The ESA years and the Saudi years give Salzgeber a vantage point on a trend the European smallsat industry cannot ignore. Saudi Arabia’s space economy reached $8.7 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $31.6 billion by 2035. The Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund created Neo Space Group in 2024 to serve as a national champion in satellite manufacturing and operations. SatNews covered the launch of Neo Space Group and its mandate to unlock the potential of space from Saudi Arabia. In February 2026, D-Orbit and ELT Group signed a strategic cooperation framework supporting Saudi Vision 2030 objectives, covering satellite platforms, in-orbit services, and RF spectrum monitoring — a deal that followed D-Orbit’s $53 million Series D round in January 2026, which the company earmarked for M&A and in-space computing expansion.
Before ESA, Salzgeber founded and served as CFO and COO of a Munich IT startup that merged with CANCOM IT SA, and spent seven years at Apple Computer in account and sales management across Central Europe. He holds a degree in industrial engineering and served two years in the German Air Force.
At SmallSat Europe, Salzgeber delivers a Keynote titled “Bridging Orbits: Europe and the Middle East’s Emerging Space Economies.”
European smallsat companies looking east will find a market building fast. Salzgeber has worked both sides of that bridge.
