A German manufacturer of high-tech tanks used in rockets and other spacecraft is setting up its first U.S. factory at Port San Antonio.
Bavaria-based Blackwave GmbH has committed $2.5 million to upgrade a 1.1-million-square-foot building at the Southwest Side technology hub.
The 10-year-old company is among a small group of outfits worldwide that make the tanks, which are known as composite overwrapped pressure vessels, or COPVs. Wrapped in strands of carbon fiber, they are key components of spacecraft because they can store high-pressure gases or fluids like their steel counterparts, but at a far lower weight…