The Netherlands Space Operations Centre (NSpOC), part of the Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force, has selected GMV’s Ecosstm® software to strengthen its Space Domain Awareness (SDA) capabilities, as European nations continue to expand sovereign monitoring of the increasingly congested orbital environment.
Under the agreement, NSpOC will integrate Ecosstm® into its operational architecture to support space surveillance and tracking (SST), space traffic management (STM) and broader SDA functions. The platform will provide capabilities including space object catalogue maintenance, overflight event detection, re-entry monitoring and collision avoidance management.
The move reflects a broader trend among European defence organisations to build national-level space monitoring capabilities while aligning with NATO and EU space security frameworks. As low Earth orbit becomes more crowded — driven by large satellite constellations, defence assets and commercial missions — the ability to independently track objects and assess conjunction risks is increasingly viewed as a strategic requirement.
Ecosstm® is designed to manage the full operational chain of space surveillance, from sensor tasking and allocation through to catalogue generation and service delivery to end users. In practical terms, that includes ingesting data from radar and optical sensors, correlating observations with existing orbital data, identifying anomalies and supporting decision-making around collision avoidance or potential re-entry events.
GMV says the software is already operational in a number of European civil and military environments, including Germany’s military Space Domain Awareness Center (Weltraumlagezentrum), Spain’s Space Operations and Surveillance Center (COVE), and civilian surveillance systems in countries such as Romania and Greece. It is also used in GMV’s commercial surveillance operations centre, Focusoc, and within the Space Data Association’s Space Safety Portal.
For the Netherlands, the integration forms part of a broader push toward sovereign SDA capability. Major Scott Akkerman, Space Domain Awareness Portfolio Manager at NSpOC, said the implementation represents an early step toward enabling national space operations and delivering services to other branches of the armed forces, allied partners and NATO.
The emphasis on sovereignty reflects a changing security landscape. Space is increasingly treated as an operational domain alongside land, sea, air and cyber. Reliable space situational awareness underpins not only satellite protection but also military communications, navigation and intelligence capabilities that depend on orbital assets.
Beyond defence, sustainability concerns are also driving investment in tracking and traffic management systems. The proliferation of satellites and debris has heightened the risk of in-orbit collisions, with cascading debris scenarios remaining a long-term concern for both commercial and government operators. Enhanced catalogue management and event detection are central to mitigating those risks.
For GMV, the contract reinforces its role within Europe’s space surveillance ecosystem at a time when interoperability and data sharing are becoming central to collective space security. For the Netherlands, the deployment marks a concrete step toward strengthening national oversight of space activity while contributing to allied space domain awareness efforts.
As orbital congestion continues to increase, investments in tracking, coordination and collision avoidance are moving from optional capability to operational necessity — particularly for nations seeking both strategic autonomy and integration within multinational security frameworks.
