From the Netherlands to the Global Space Community: Nextage's Journey Through NL Space Week, World Space Week, and Beyond

The momentum began at ESA Industry Space Days, where innovators, established players, and emerging companies came together to explore opportunities for collaboration that will propel the European space industry forward. 

Sessions like “Industrial Policy in Practice: Connecting ESA, Industry and Opportunity” and “Resilience, Navigation and Connectivity” offered valuable insights into Europe's evolving space priorities and emerging opportunities.

An exciting highlight for Nextage was seeing our name previewed on the Aerospace Delta map ahead of its grand unveiling at Space Tech Expo Europe in November! 

Beyond the presentations, the event sparked conversations about shared challenges, complementary capabilities, and how collaboration can turn ambitious ideas into real-world solutions for Europe's space future.

Celebrating a New Chapter in Netherlands Space Infrastructure: GTM's Cleanroom Grand Opening

Location: GTM Headquarters - The Hague, NL

Precision, preparation, and technical excellence are essential to engineering for space. GTM's cleanroom grand opening offered an opportunity to celebrate the facilities and capabilities that are expanding in the Netherlands to make that ambitious engineering work possible.

Behind every successful space mission is an enormous amount of work that happens long before launch. Specialized environments, rigorous processes, and skilled teams all contribute to turning complex engineering requirements into reliable hardware.

Celebrating milestones like this is also about recognizing the people and organizations investing in the infrastructure that supports the industry's future. Congratulations to the entire GTM team on this exciting milestone!

Celebrating 75 Years of Dutch Space Innovation: Netherlands Space Society's Galaxy Gala

Location: De Schaapskooi – Delft, NL

75 years of spaceflight advocacy and community building is a milestone worth celebrating.

The Netherlands Space Society (NVR) celebrated its 75th anniversary at their Galaxy Gala in Delft. This annual event brings the community together to celebrate the history, achievements, and future of space in the Netherlands.

The anniversary was a reminder that today's space industry stands on decades of curiosity, persistence, and collaboration. The technologies may evolve, missions may grow more ambitious, and new companies may enter the field, but the drive to explore and understand our universe remains constant.

For Nextage, being part of this community means contributing to a future shaped not only by technical progress, but also by the people who champion it.

Here's to the next 75 years of space innovation in the Netherlands!

 

Opening Doors to Exploration: ESA Open Days

Location: ESA European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) – Noordwijk, NL

We kicked off NL Space Week back at ESTEC for ESA Open Days, which brought another opportunity to connect with the people, technologies, and ambitions shaping Europe's space future.

Seeing the space community come together in one place is a powerful reminder of the scale of the undertaking, and the breadth of expertise needed to make it work. From scientific discovery, to complex engineering, the development of a highly skilled workforce, and the communications that show the public at large the significance of space exploration–it is evident that progress depends on a diverse network of specialists, organizations, and collaborators.

ESA Open Days highlighted the importance of accessibility, engagement, and knowledge-sharing in building a thriving space sector. Alongside emerging innovation and established institutions, space needs a curious, informed public composed of people who understand its impact and feel inspired by the possibilities of exploration.

The Big Event: Nextage’s New Office Welcome Borrel

Location: Nextage BV Headquarters – Delft, NL

If there was one moment that brought the spirit of NL Space Week together for Nextage, it was our new office welcome borrel.

We opened our doors and welcomed friends, partners, and members of the space community for an evening of conversation, connection, and celebration. After visiting organizations across the Netherlands and reconnecting with people throughout the industry at events, bringing everyone together in our own space felt especially meaningful.

A new office is more than just a place to work. It's a sign of dedication to building a space that brings people together to exchange ideas, start conversations, and create the relationships that help ambitious projects move forward–and that's exactly what we want our Delft office to be. We're building a home for collaboration: a place where engineers, innovators, partners, and customers can come together to explore challenges and discover what might be possible in Europe’s expanding space industry.

To everyone who joined us to celebrate or has supported Nextage along the way, we want to extend our sincerest thank you. Your enthusiasm and support made the evening special, and showed us just how far we’ve come from simply visiting the Netherlands, to the monumental achievement of opening an office in Delft.  

Here's to new beginnings, stronger partnerships, and plenty more reasons to get together!

A Little Friendly Competition: The NVR and Space Generation Advisory Council Space Pub Quiz

Location: Leidse Lente – Leiden, NL

Space brings people together over complex engineering challenges, and occasionally, over a few tricky trivia questions.

The NL Space Week festivities continued with a Space Pub Quiz hosted by NVR and Space Generation Advisory Council. This event offered a lighter-hearted way to connect with the community, celebrate our shared enthusiasm for space, and put our collective knowledge to the test.

Events like this show that the space sector is more than technology and business. It's a community of curious people who love learning, sharing knowledge, and are inspired to advance our current understanding of the universe. Whether discussing future missions or debating a quiz answer, that curiosity is part of what keeps the industry moving forward.

Investing in the Future of Space: Judging the Curiosity Contest 2026

Location: ARTIS Planetarium – Amsterdam, NL

The future of space exploration starts with curiosity, and the next generation is already putting bold ideas into action.

Nextage’s very own Dean Bushong served as a judge for the 2026 Curiosity Contest, a student-led initiative bringing together aspiring innovators from different disciplines and educational backgrounds to tackle real challenges facing the space industry.

Hosted at ARTIS Planetarium in Amsterdam, the finale marked the culmination of six months of work by five student teams exploring reuse and in situ resource utilisation–two important areas in the pursuit of more sustainable space exploration. The teams presented their projects to a panel of industry professionals who selected the winning concept. Attendees also had the opportunity to meet the students and explore their work at a project market.

Supporting initiatives like the Curiosity Contest is about creating opportunities for emerging talent to engage with real-world engineering challenges, connect with industry professionals, and see how their ideas could contribute to the future of space. By bringing students and industry together, the Curiosity Contest helps turn that curiosity into a starting point for something bigger.

At Nextage, we're excited to see what the next generation will build, discover, and make possible through their curiosity. Congratulations to all five teams for the work, creativity, and commitment they brought to the competition, and to the organizers and mentors who helped make it possible!

Nextage Goes Global: International Astronautical Congress in Türkiye

Location: Nest International Convention Center – Antalya, Türkiye

From the Dutch space community to the global stage, the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) during World Space Week launched Nextage into a global worldview.

IAC is an opportunity to engage with the broader space industry, exchange ideas across borders, and explore the technologies and partnerships that will shape future missions. It's where conversations about technical challenges, emerging capabilities, and industry priorities can connect organizations working across different countries, markets, and disciplines.

For Nextage, that global perspective is imperative.

Our work sits at the intersection of engineering capability, adaptable computing, sensing technology, and international collaboration. Connecting with the wider industry helps us understand where our expertise can be most useful, and how our solutions might support the needs of various players.

Our space engineering services support organizations tackling complex technical challenges. Our NMC delivers high-performance computing for demanding avionics and edge applications. The NextMAG magnetometer provides precision magnetic-field sensing for education, industrial, and scientific applications. Together, these offerings reflect Nextage’s commitment to transforming complex engineering challenges into reliable, real-world solutions that advance technology and enable new possibilities.

The conversations and connections made at IAC are an important part of understanding where those capabilities can deliver value, and where future collaborations may emerge around the globe.

 

Looking Back, and Moving Forward to What’s Next

NL Space Week and World Space Week provided a powerful opportunity to reconnect with the people who make the space community what it is, meet new collaborators, learn from organizations across the industry, and share in the excitement of a global collective of passionate players that continue to push humanity into the cosmos.

At Nextage, we work with organizations that need engineering expertise, adaptable technology, and partners who understand the challenges of turning ambitious ideas into reality. Whether you're developing a space mission, tackling a complex engineering challenge, or exploring next-generation computing and sensing capabilities, we're here to help:

• Space Engineering Services – From electrical systems engineering and circuit design to automated test equipment, spacecraft simulators, environmental testing, and mission operations, Nextage delivers specialized engineering expertise across the space mission lifecycle
• NMC (Nextage Modular Computer) – Delivering high-performance, adaptable computing for demanding avionics, autonomous platforms, and intelligent systems
• NextMAG Magnetometer – Portable, cost-effective, precision three-axis terrestrial magnetic field sensing for classrooms, research labs, and field applications
• NextMAG Rugged – Science-grade, three-axis magnetic field sensing in a ruggedized platform engineered for continuous, unattended operation in demanding industrial environments

Have a Challenge? Let's Make Something Happen.

Whether you're looking for experienced space engineering support, exploring high-performance computing with our NMC, investigating precision magnetic-field sensing with NextMAG, or looking for the right partner to bring a new idea to life, we want to hear what you're working on.

Fill out our contact form and let's get the conversation started: https://nextage-llc.com/contact/ 

Heading to Space Tech Expo Europe? So is Nextage! We'd love to explore where our capabilities and your ambitions might intersect. 

Visit us at Booth 2510

Contact our Strategic Partnership and Outreach Manager, Brooke Owen to arrange a meeting.

🤝 B2B Profile: https://www.b2match.com/e/space-tech-expo-europe-b2b-2026/participants/3718017 

📧 Email: <bowen@nextage-llc.com>

Connect with Nextage, and let's build the future of space together.