About Us

Bradford Space

Leadership

Patrick van Put

Managing Director

Patrick van Put | LinkedIn

  • Responsible for all European operations

  • 29 years of experience in the Aerospace field, primarily in propulsion markets.

  • Degrees from University of Antwerp and Brussels, Belgium

Philippe Gnemmi

Site Director - Bradford Space Netherlands

Philippe Gnemmi | LinkedIn

  • Responsible for the Bradford Engineering BV operations in The Netherlands

  • 22 years of experience in the Aerospace field with satellite manufacturer and sub-systems provider

  • Degrees from INSA Lyon

Gary Paul

Site Director - Bradford Space Luxembourg

Gary Paul | LinkedIn

  • Responsible for the Bradford Space / Deep Space Industries operations in Luxembourg

  • 7 years of experience in strategic leadership

  • Degree from Monash University

Bradford Space MIssions

Mission

Bradford Space is a high-tech developer and manufacturer that has been innovating the space industry for over three decades. Bradford has nearly 40 years’ experience developing and manufacturing state-of-the-art in-orbit systems and components. Today, this US-owned company with headquarters in New York City and operations in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, builds high performance spacecraft propulsion systems, avionics, attitude orbit control systems, microgravity workspaces, and provides Logistics Services for missions beyond LEO.  

Bradford is a world-leader in non-toxic propellant systems and technology ranging from cold gas, water, ADN (Ammonium DiNitrimide), and electric propulsion. Bradford is a leading subsystem supplier to aerospace primes, space agencies and venture-backed space companies around the world with over 2000 products in space. 

Commercial customers who have used Bradford products include Airbus, Astranis, Astroscale, Blue Canyon Technologies, HawkEye 360, LeoStella / Black Sky Global, Millennium Space, Moog, OHB, Planet, QinetiQ Space, Sierra Nevada Corp, SSL, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Thales Alenia Space, VACCO, and York Space Systems.

Bradford is also proud of the space agencies it has worked with over many years, in particular ESA, NASA, the Netherlands Space Office and the Luxembourg Space Agency

Flight Mission Log

History

Bradford Space’s history encompasses the story and work of its companies located in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, formerly Sweden and the US; all founded to build quality engineered systems and disrupt key markets in high performance fields.

The first company, Bradford Engineering from the Netherlands, the company from which the group gets its name, was founded in 1984 as a family-owned company in the town of Putte, in the south of the Netherlands. What started with a focus in nuclear activities shifted quickly to human spaceflight and satellite systems. The first gloveboxes, systems to allow humans to safety manipulate experiments in space, were built for NASA and ESA Space Shuttle missions and started flying into space from 1992 onwards.

Bradford Space Team

Bradford Engineering has provided all of the glovebox facilities to the International Space Station. Most notably the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) which has seen more than 30,000 operational hours since its launch in 2002 and is one of the most used facilities on the space station.

In 1994, Bradford Engineering started developing products for the commercial satellite and spacecraft markets, notably valves, heat exchangers, flow meters, pressure transducers, and fans. Later, by the mid-2000s, the company had diversified further, into satellite attitude and orbit control subsystems (sun sensors, reaction wheels), into propulsion subsystems and into space thermal systems. These products formed the basis of the main part of Bradford’s business until today, with over 2.000 products launched to space and counting.

In 2016 Bradford Engineering was acquired by the American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC), a privately-held industrial group, headquartered in the USA. It was under AIAC that the current Bradford Space began to take form. Under AIAC, Bradford started acquiring companies and also formed ‘Bradford Workspaces’, a business unit to rebrand and reimagine the glovebox line for the commercial space industry.        

In July 2017, Bradford acquired ECAPS from Sweden, resulting in Bradford’s expansion into full, non-toxic propulsion systems. Prior to the acquisition, Bradford had already been providing pressure transducers to each ECAPS propulsion system.

In 2018, with the acquisition of Deep Space Industries (DSI), the Comet water-based propulsion systems and the Explorer satellite platform were added to the Bradford Space product portfolio. Comet is a launch-safe and cost-effective electro-thermal propulsion system that offers the ideal balance of cost and performance, and used on CubeSat-level spacecraft by customers such as Capella Space, HawkEye 360, LeoStella and SFL. This high performance propulsion unit uses water as propellant, making the system easy to work with and easy to fuel.

DSI also developed Explorer, a low-cost deep space bus that allows for more robust exploration and prospecting of the solar system. Finally, DSI also established an office in Luxembourg to pursue products in deep space avionics.

With the DSI acquisition, Bradford Space continues to build a world-leading position in non-toxic propulsion, providing an outlet and location for activities in the US space market and a position for broad activity in deep space. Our engineers have a long and experienced history with spacecraft design and mission engineering. Bradford Space – created by talent and experience, grown through acquisition.

In July 2023, Bradford decided to divest its Swedish entity, ECAPS, while maintaining a strong business relationship going forward. This action allows Bradford space to further emphasize its independence, allowing to propose the best-fit turn-key propulsion solution for its customers.