Thorium Space leaves the lab after a decade

Thorium Space, a space-industry startup, plans to enter NewConnect with a new strategy following an inventory of its resources, projects and execution capabilities. Its growth plans have been reassessed by a new chief executive who moved into the space sector from consulting.

Thorium Space is on the final stretch toward its NewConnect debut. On August 7, the Management Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW) adopted a resolution approving the introduction of the company’s shares to trading. The debut, which the company expects within the next few weeks, will not involve a new share issue. The company has already raised PLN 22 million (about EUR 5.1 million) in a pre-IPO round to fund planned investments.

The exchange’s small-cap market is intended to provide investors with liquidity, make the shares easier to value and, in the future, simplify potential investor exits and the raising of additional capital.

This is no longer a drill

Thorium is promising a fresh start. The company has reassessed its plans and now wants to move as quickly as possible from the laboratory and prototype-development stage to products that can actually be sold.

“The company has been operating for almost a decade, and during that time it has not developed a product that could be offered for sale. We want to change that within the next two years,” says Piotr Mierzejewski, CEO of Thorium Space.

Mierzejewski stresses that the time was not wasted. In Poland’s still-developing space sector, the company needed to build the right expertise, develop technologies and test the solutions it was working on. Now, however, he says Thorium is approaching a point at which its future will depend not only on its ability to secure research grants, but also on its ability to find customers.

A finance man to reshape the space business

This is the first space company led by Piotr Mierzejewski. He joined the space-tech sector from financial-sector consulting.

“This gives me a sharper, but also a fresh, perspective. And I know that Poland has enormous potential in the space sector, thanks to the people who have committed themselves to it,” he says.

Thorium Space is expected to make its NewConnect debut within the next few weeks, although the exact date has yet to be set. The action plan, however, is clear. Its first proprietary products – integrated circuits and antenna modules – are due to hit the market in early 2029.

A realistic plan to start selling

Thorium’s CEO outlines the key elements of the changes that are paving the way for this fresh start.

“First, the product roadmap has been spread over a longer period. The previous plan assumed that all the products Thorium Space is working on would reach the market at the same time. Now we want to focus on the modular antennas we are designing ourselves. We will treat the integrated circuits as a separate product for sale; we have commissioned a Swedish partner to design them and prepare them for outsourced production. Another change is to build partnerships with other companies in the industry, which will allow us to develop technologies for the space sector faster and more efficiently,” Piotr Mierzejewski says, outlining the key elements of the revamped strategy.

Antennas: build your own setup

Until now, the company had planned to bring several groups of solutions to readiness at roughly the same time: antennas and satellite terminals, as well as a telecommunications payload – the equipment a satellite carries into space to perform specific tasks.

After reviewing the progress of its projects, the new management concluded that the plan was not feasible.

“We reviewed the maturity of our solutions. We had to accept the fact that the payload will not be ready in two years, but in six, because it still requires a great deal of work. We therefore decided to focus on the areas in which the company specializes and that are within reach – high-frequency antennas. We want to prepare them so that each customer can use the modules to build the antenna they need,” says CEO Piotr Mierzejewski.

The antenna modules are expected to be ready for sale in two years. The antennas will primarily serve telecommunications systems, but could also be used by Earth-observation and weather satellites.

The market is opening up

Thorium Space specializes in flat-panel antennas operating at high frequencies, ranging from a dozen to several dozen gigahertz. Unlike traditional parabolic antennas, they do not need moving mechanical components to track fast-moving satellites in low Earth orbit. The beam is steered electronically.

According to Thorium’s CEO, the technology should be lighter, simpler in design and less prone to failure. It can be used both in ground infrastructure and on satellites.

“We would also like to supply the ground segment – that is, satellite terminals. We are working on those as well. But for now, we are still talking about prototypes,” Piotr Mierzejewski stresses.

Mierzejewski says the natural potential customers for the antennas are companies in Poland and across Europe. Smaller components, such as integrated circuits and antenna modules, could also be sold in global markets, including through Thorium’s partners.

Its own space chips

An important source of revenue for the company is expected to be the sale of industry-specific integrated circuits. Previously, these chips were intended solely for use in Thorium Space’s own equipment. The company now plans to offer them to other businesses as well, initially in the European market and eventually worldwide.

Thorium has commissioned Swedish company Sivers to design the chips. They will be manufactured at GlobalFoundries, also with the help of its Swedish partner. This should give Thorium more reliable access to components, greater control over delivery schedules and better visibility on semiconductor prices.

“We commissioned the development of integrated circuits to be used in our equipment, both in ground-based and space applications. This is particularly important for the space-grade versions of the chips. You cannot simply buy the appropriate chips on the open market. We have been monitoring this market for some time, and we see that significant fluctuations in the price and availability of these components are one of the main constraints for their customers,” Piotr Mierzejewski says.

The company concluded that being able to decide when and how to sell the chips could give it a competitive edge, he says.

“First, it would stabilize our access to this critical component. Second, we could generate revenue from selling the chips. We developed a concept for the functions these circuits should perform and defined the specifications they need to meet,” Thorium’s CEO explains.

The project is still in the testing and refinement phase. The production version of the integrated circuits is expected to be ready by the end of 2028.

The plan through 2029

The preparation of chip production will be financed with PLN 10 million (about EUR 2.3 million) raised in the pre-IPO. The funds will cover the costs of design, testing, revisions and, of course, preparing for production at the Swedish subcontractor. The remaining PLN 12 million (about EUR 5.1 million) will fund other ongoing projects, primarily the development of the target antenna module.

An alliance with a rival

The final – and by no means least important – element of Thorium Space’s new strategy is a change in the startup’s operating model: from going it alone to working in cooperation. The startup has concluded that alliances with other space companies could deliver greater benefits than developing every solution independently.

Thorium Space and Creotech Instruments signed their first technology and business cooperation agreement in June. It covers advanced satellite communications (SATCOM) systems. The companies also signed a conditional option agreement that could allow Creotech to acquire around 1.1 million shares in Thorium Space. The initial figure was close to 20 percent, but that percentage could change as further share issues take place.

Thorium plans to continue combining its technologies with solutions developed by other companies in order to build, test and deploy products faster. The partnerships are intended to reduce costs and speed up time to market.

“Creotech supplies satellite platforms, while Thorium is developing payloads, antennas and digital processors. A similar model could be applied to terminals: Thorium Space would contribute the antenna, while another company would provide the modem or other components of the device. This is not a client-contractor relationship. Each party is meant to earn money from the jointly developed solution,” Piotr Mierzejewski explains.

“The barrier is slow decision-making”

The company’s strategy calls for continued research and development (R&D). Thorium still intends to make use of funding from the European Space Agency and Poland’s National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR), particularly for its long-term work on the payload. CEO Piotr Mierzejewski says funding for research is available, but lengthy decision-making, red tape and the way projects are settled remain obstacles. For a small company, waiting months for funding can put its liquidity under strain.

Poland and major European projects are expected to be the main markets for its systems, terminals and payloads. For smaller components – integrated circuits and antenna modules – the company sees scope for broader sales, including through partners in global markets and in niche applications.

Poland’s space industry needs Polish procurement

The CEO does not hide his view that Europe still has ground to make up on its biggest competitors. In his assessment, American and Chinese solutions – and soon Indian ones as well – are more mature and are being produced on a much larger scale. This drives down their unit costs and makes it harder for European companies to compete on price. Thorium therefore wants to build its business first through orders in Poland and Europe.

“Poland’s space sector is at the beginning of its development. It will not grow to a level where it can compete with other markets if the state continues to buy only mature systems from abroad. Polish companies need orders for their first working products, even if that entails greater risk. A reluctance to take risks – both in government and in the financial system – is a major barrier in Poland. And risk is, after all, inseparable from innovation,” Thorium’s CEO stresses.

The company is involved, among other things, in a project concerning a telecommunications satellite in high orbit. It is developing communications solutions for the Bursztyn rocket together with Łukasiewicz Institute of Aviation and is also working on a communications transponder.

Space is for the bold

A potential opportunity for many Polish companies lies in the European IRIS² program. The project envisages building a European constellation of several hundred satellites – estimates range from 150 to 300 – to provide secure critical communications, primarily for government and military users. Thorium is approaching the opportunity with caution, however. Participation in the most important parts of the program is expected to require mature technologies with so-called flight heritage, meaning technologies that have already been proven in space. Poland’s satellite telecommunications industry still has virtually no complete solutions that meet this standard.

In July 2026, Poland signed an agreement with the European Commission to participate in the strategic IRIS² program for secure satellite communications, committing EUR 656 million to the initiative.

For Thorium Space, the next three years will put its new assessment of the company’s position to the test. It must make its NewConnect debut, bring its integrated circuits and antenna modules to production-ready versions, build partnerships and win customers. That will determine whether almost a decade of research becomes the foundation of a viable business – or remains another long-running development project without a commercial payoff.

Key Takeaways

1. Thorium Space is leaving the lab after nearly a decade of R&D. The company plans to make its NewConnect debut within the next few weeks. Its new CEO, Piotr Mierzejewski, who joined the space industry from financial-markets consulting, is reassessing the strategy: rather than developing multiple products in parallel, the company is staggering the commercialization of its projects.
2. The company is targeting the Polish and European markets. Thorium’s CEO stresses the need for local orders for Polish technologies if the country’s space sector is to grow in the face of the dominance of the US, China and India.
3. The company is targeting the Polish and European markets. Thorium’s CEO stresses the need for local orders for Polish technologies if the country’s space sector is to grow in the face of the dominance of the US, China and India.