{"id":867340,"date":"2026-11-01T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=867340"},"modified":"2026-10-30T15:56:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T13:56:43","slug":"the-british-man-who-founded-a-south-african-company-that-makes-parts-for-nasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/867340\/the-british-man-who-founded-a-south-african-company-that-makes-parts-for-nasa\/","title":{"rendered":"The British man who founded a South African company that makes parts for NASA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

James Barrington-Brown moved to Cape Town from the UK with two suitcases and started a company that makes spacecraft parts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barrington-Brown founded NewSpace Systems in 2013, which manufactures parts of spacecraft that go into orbit, focusing on the payload, cameras and communications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He initially hailed from the UK and became an electronics engineer, which he pursued after he was a DJ and wanted his lights to flash in exciting ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He moved into the space industry, which is the coolest thing to talk about. The demands of engineering are also extreme, with no maintenance for the parts in space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He moved to Cape Town in 2013, having worked in the aerospace industry, and having fallen in love with the region during business and personal trips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He moved to Cape Town with two suitcases and a big idea for a business. He saw an opportunity to benefit from the large number of skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa also benefited from lower costs, with Barrington-Brown wanting to break into the world market for space products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The business’s start was not simple; the company was bootstrapped, and cash flow was always an issue. “Five out of the first eight months I drew no salary to keep the company afloat,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investors from Germany and the United States, who understood his vision, backed the company’s early growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company became a huge success, with a global customer base, 80% of which are in the USA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes NASA and other deep space companies. Its main customers are those who make satellites for a specific purpose, such as communications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of its largest customers is OneWeb, which provides broadband internet from space, akin to Starlink and Amazon Leo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company would also expand from a venture in the Western Cape into a multinational operation, supporting a fleet of more than 500 satellites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has also exported over 2,000 components to 33 countries across six continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also operates facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Asia, allowing it to serve its diverse clientele. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This expansion has enabled NSS to serve both commercial customers and government clients while maintaining consistent year-over-year growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Takes a step back <\/h2>\n\n\n
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The Barrington-Browns<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Barrington-Brown stepped down from his executive role as global chairman of the company he founded in July 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operational leadership will be passed to\u00a0Tanya Lerm, who was the CEO of NewSpace Systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While stepping back from his day-to-day role at the company, he said that he would remain actively involved with NSS as Chairman of the Board. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As per this, he would provide strategic guidance and oversee the company’s long-term direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He would serve in a consultancy role, providing his expertise to support critical decisions and initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After leaving his executive duties, Barrington-Brown and his wife, Yvette Barrington-Brown, co-founded Cape Constellation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cape Constellation was born out of the belief that Africa’s space future needs to be built on African soil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvette transitioned into the space sector, coming through long-term industry exposure and formal training in space law and policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Barrington-Browns combined their expertise to find Africa Space Ventures, which aims to accelerate commercial investment, market-driven strategies, and startup growth across the African space technology sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photos of NewSpace Systems<\/h2>\n\n\n
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James Barrington-Brown moved to Cape Town from the UK with two suitcases and started a company that makes spacecraft parts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":867359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2116819044137332903","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2256874115132987","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18114407099175990","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[3800,25906],"class_list":["post-867340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-nasa","tag-newspace-systems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867340"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881585,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867340\/revisions\/881585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}