Highlights of the European Space Agency’s achievements this year includes the ongoing expansion of ESA’s Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) network. In this post, we take a look back at the 2025 highlights featuring Dutch ESA BIC startups.
Space Tech Expo Europe attracts scores of space professionals to Bremen in November. This year, the city additionally hosted the ESA Ministerial Council Meeting. News was fast-flowing, as were the networking ops at Connecting The Curious.
Space related innovations from the Netherlands have been making the news during October. There was NL Space Week and NSO made recommendations about Dutch contributions to ESA. The ESA BIC incubatees and alumni have also been gaining exposure this month.
Arceon’s space trajectory has seen the team go from strength to strength with multiple ESA contracts, collaborations and funding rounds. CEO Rahul Shirke shares the startup’s journey since graduating from ESA BIC.
Following its winning proposal for the ESA FIRST! campaign, Arceon has been awarded its first project as a prime contractor under ESA. The award recognises the startup’s innovative materials for propulsion systems.
ESA BIC Noordwijk alumnus Arceon sees its ceramic matrix composite launched into space as part of the Europe Material Ageing campaign, which is a collaboration between ESA and the French Space Agency (CNES).