NewSpace Systems Adds Netherlands Subsidiary as Its European Footprint Takes Shape

South Africa's leading spacecraft component manufacturer has established a new entity in the Netherlands, its latest international move as it continues to scale operations to meet growing global demand.

NewSpace Systems (NSS) has announced the formation of a new European subsidiary based in the Netherlands, unveiled at the SmallSat Europe conference in Amsterdam. The development adds another node to an already well-established international network for the Somerset West-headquartered company, which already operates offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

The Netherlands subsidiary is not NSS’s first step into Europe; it is the formalisation of a growing regional presence, designed to put the company closer to the institutional and commercial customers it has been steadily winning across the continent.

Why the Netherlands

CEO Tanya Lerm said that growing engagement across Europe had made a dedicated regional hub increasingly necessary. The Netherlands was selected after evaluating several potential locations, with its internationally friendly business environment, skilled technical workforce, and a rapidly developing domestic space ecosystem all contributing to the decision.

The new entity will roll out in phases, initially focusing on business development, customer engagement, and technical support for European operators. Over time, NSS plans to expand its localised capabilities in line with the European market’s evolution.

Building on a Strong Track Record

The European expansion is the latest in a series of significant moves by NSS over the past year, underscoring how far the company has come since its founding in 2013.

At its core, NSS specialises in Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) hardware, the sun sensors, magnetometers, reaction wheels, magnetorquer rods, GPS receivers and antennas that keep satellites pointed in the right direction and functioning reliably in orbit. More recently, the company has expanded its portfolio into RF communications, adding another critical subsystem to its offering.

That product range now flies on more than 2,500 spacecraft. NSS exports to over 38 countries across six continents and counts several major constellation operators, including those running fleets of 500 or more satellites, among its customers. It is widely regarded as Africa’s largest exporter of space-utilised hardware.

The Factory That Sets the Foundation

Underpinning the international expansion is a major infrastructure investment back home. In March 2026, NSS officially opened its new 5,200 m² manufacturing facility in Somerset West, now the largest commercial space component and subsystem manufacturing site on the African continent, and one of the most advanced in the Southern Hemisphere.

At the heart of the facility is a 1,260 m² cleanroom, ISO 14644-1 certified and built from the ground up for space manufacturing. The site also includes a 120 m² engineering lab, Helmholtz coil calibration areas for magnetically sensitive hardware, dark rooms for optical testing, thermal and vibration testing zones, and 6S LEAN-certified assembly lines. All units produced meet IPC and ECSS (European Cooperation for Space Standardisation) standards.

The facility more than doubles NSS’s previous production capacity, and was designed specifically to support the high-volume demands of modern LEO constellation programmes. NSS broke ground on the project in October 2024, and it is advancing next-generation sensors, navigation systems, and reaction wheels, while also pushing further into space RF communications.

Lerm has been clear that the company’s international growth does not come at the expense of its South African base. “Our headquarters in South Africa remain the heart of our engineering, manufacturing, and operations,” she said. “As we continue growing internationally, we remain equally committed to investing in our capabilities at home.”

Building Toward the Next Phase

The Netherlands subsidiary brings NSS’s formal international presence to five locations across four continents. For a company founded just over a decade ago in the Western Cape, the trajectory is striking, from a specialist component maker to a multinational supplier embedded in the supply chains of some of the world’s largest satellite programmes.

The European entity arrives at a moment when demand for flight-proven, scalable GNC hardware is accelerating, driven by the continued growth of LEO constellations and a broader push by commercial and institutional operators to diversify their supply chains. With its new facility producing at scale in South Africa and a growing presence in key international markets, NSS appears well-positioned to capitalise on both trends.