Space
West End has been active for more than 50 years in the space industry. West End is a leading company for design, engineering and manufacturing of Mechanical Ground Support Equipment (MGSE) in the Netherlands. We have been working on MGSEs for satellites, solar arrays and ground based astronomy installations. Our name is probably linked to all European missions, including Artemis, Plato, Metop, Galileo and Bepicolombo.
In addition to our role in testing, West End manufactures Flight Equipment for the VEGA rocket programme.
For our customer facilities (whether they are located inside or outside) West End provides continuously on-site maintenance and repair services. With great pride we provide both man-support and maintenance for the workshop of the European Space Agency site ESTEC in Noordwijk.
Space projects and products
Mechanical Ground Support Equipment (MGSE) is the equipment used in the Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT) facilities of our customers and typically includes items such as lifting equipment, flight hardware interface adapters, tip and tilt trolleys, special test adapters and other necessary tooling and internal transport items.
West End has developed a knowledge of the technology necessary for the safe and proper handling of aviation and flight hardware during AIT activities. A recent example we take pride in is the Deployment Rig for the solar arrays of Metop. West End also manufactured almost all MGSE for the Solar Array of Artemis. We […]
West End builds specialised transport containers for spacecraft flight hardware or astronomy optical hardware. Both types of hardware often need integrated handling, vacuum conditions and shock absorption. Containers for large space related items require special consideration due to the size constraints for transportation and for the very high value and sensitive nature of the contents. […]
We are proud to have been commissioned to manufacture the Mockups for ESA’s Erasmus building in Noordwijk. An example is the Colombus Mockup. One of the highlights of the Erasmus Centre’s High Bay is a 1:1 Columbus Laboratory mockup. It displays on the inside all the relevant racks and experiment facilities being currently mounted in […]
West End manufactures customised solutions for preventive safety facilities, such as stairs, railings, ladders, caged ladders, landings and platforms. We do this for temporary maintenance and other projects as well as for permanent production systems. Customised solutions are called for precisely when standard safety facilities fall short or special safety requirements apply. Besides safety facilities […]