By Dalibor Đuran, Exlabs
Components for spacecraft destined for deep-space missions are today designed and manufactured in Serbia. An engineering model of a satellite has also been built in Belgrade, and three engineers have returned from abroad to work on these programmes. The starting position is better than is usually thought.
Spacecraft components for deep-space missions are currently designed and manufactured in Serbia for an American client. A lunar surface mobility system, for which a patent application has been filed in the United States, was developed jointly with engineers from Belgrade. An engineering model of a 3U satellite, built entirely locally, was also produced in Belgrade. Three engineers have returned from abroad to work on these programmes.
Serbia is therefore already in the space industry, and at a level measured by delivered work rather than announcements. This is good news and a better starting position than most people realise. Now is the right moment to build something much bigger on this foundation.
Let me state a second point straight away, as it is more important than everything else in this text: two relationships I have built over the years can become relationships for the state itself.
The first is ExLabs. Through ExLabs, I work under a Space Act Agreement with NASA and in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the institution that has sent spacecraft to every planet in the Solar System.
The second is X-Comms. X-Comms was founded in Toulouse, within the ecosystem of France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) and the European space supply chain that gathers around it. Through these two relationships, four concrete goals are achievable: training Serbian engineers in world-class institutions, integrating Serbian companies into the supply chain of European programmes, joint participation in a scientific mission, and assistance in building a national institution based on the model CNES has already applied in several countries.
None of this is an engineering problem. These are all political decisions, and they have an expiry date.
Europe is reshuffling its space supply chains right now and looking for partners outside US jurisdiction. Whoever shows up in this division of roles with a clear offer secures a place in the chain for 15 years ahead. Serbia has everything it needs to be among those who show up on time.
This step requires one thing: an interlocutor on the Serbian side – an institution with a mandate, a budget, and a programme to which foreign partners can address themselves. It is neither an expensive nor a complicated move, and it unlocks everything else.
All of this came about because the work was delivered well, on time, and at a price competitive with Western Europe. That is the only currency that counts in this industry, and our people have shown they possess it.
How an American company ended up in Belgrade
ExLabs designs and builds spacecraft platforms, a line we have named SERV. These are modular platforms for missions going beyond geostationary orbit: to the Moon, to asteroids, to points where there is no chance of repair and where every gramme and every watt must be justified.
The company operates under a Space Act Agreement with NASA and in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which in practice means our solutions are peer-reviewed by people who have led deep-space missions.
DROV-R: a system for the Moon
This collaboration gave birth to DROV-R, a mobility and exploration system for the lunar surface, which we developed together and for which a patent application has been filed in the United States.
The lunar surface is an unforgiving environment for mechanical engineering. The regolith is abrasive and electrostatically active, penetrating every gap. The temperature difference between the sunlit and shaded sides of the same component is measured in hundreds of degrees. The night lasts two weeks. Gravity is one-sixth of Earth’s, which alters every assumption about friction, traction, and stability. Designing a mobile system for such conditions means making hundreds of decisions for which no manual exists.
Those decisions were made in Belgrade, too.
Three people came back
Of everything we have done so far, this matters most to me.
Thanks to this collaboration, three engineers returned from abroad to work in Serbia. They returned because they love their country and because they finally got the opportunity to work here, at home, on technology that excites them – on programmes that actually fly.
These two reasons go hand in hand, and that is a lesson worth remembering. The desire to live in one’s home country exists among the vast majority of our diaspora; what was missing was work worthy of their knowledge. When such work appears, people return on their own, quickly and willingly.
Now, such work exists. Three people is not a statistic, but it is a proof of concept – and a proof of concept is what gets scaled up. If one contract with a single foreign company brings back three people, 10 such contracts bring back 30. A national programme brings back hundreds – and not just anyone, but people with experience from the most demanding programmes in the world. The hardest part was securing the first contract, and that has already been done.
Where Serbia is genuinely strong
When people ask me what specifically Serbia can do in the space industry, I avoid answering “everything”. It cannot do everything, nor should it try to. But there are three areas where its position is genuinely strong:
- Software: The most obvious advantage and the least exploited. Space software is not exotic compared to what Serbian engineers are already doing: embedded software with strict requirements, real-time operating systems, FPGA logic, telemetry and telecommand protocols, mission planning software, simulations and digital twins, and ground segment software. The difference compared to commercial software lies not in complexity, but in discipline: documentation, traceability of requirements, and verification. That is learned in a few months, not a few years. A country exporting billions of euros in software has an open door here and is barely pushing it.
- Hardware and mechanics: Precision machining, structural elements, mechanisms, cable routing, and thermal solutions. Serbian mechanical engineering has a long tradition, today augmented by modern machinery and personnel working to international standards. Taran is proof that it is possible to step outside the automotive subcontracting loop and work for space programmes.
- Testing and qualification: Probably the greatest untapped opportunity. Every component destined for orbit must undergo vibration testing, a thermal vacuum chamber, electromagnetic compatibility, and radiation hardness testing. In Europe, queues for these laboratories take months and cost a fortune. Serbia has a serious institute and instrumentation base from which targeted investment could create a regional testing centre. This is infrastructure that pays for itself through use, attracts foreign clients, and retains talent in the country.
I would also add a fourth point, which is an advantage of circumstance rather than an area of expertise: Serbia is small enough to make decisions quickly. In an industry where people wait years for approval in major agencies, that is a serious advantage – provided it is used.
(Tango Six, 07.09.2026)