The future is bright for the UK’s space ambitions
4 min read
The UK Space Agency has been at the heart of the United Kingdom’s growing space sector since it was founded in 2010.
An executive agency of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, it delivers on key ambitions set out in the UK’s National Space Strategy – by catalysing investment into the sector, delivering missions and capabilities, and championing the power of space to improve services across the economy and inspire the next generation.
Since 2015, over $47bn of private capital has flowed into the global space sector, growing on average by 21 per cent a year. The UK is better placed than most to benefit from this new space age and has welcomed around 17 per cent of this total to our shores, making the UK the second most attractive destination, only behind the United States.
As with almost every other industry, the past few years have been challenging. But the UK space sector has bucked the trend and brought in an additional £1bn on an annual basis between 2020 and 2021, generating £17.5bn in 2021. It currently employs just under 49,000 people from Newquay and Newcastle to Swansea and Shetland, with thousands more in the supply chain.
In Scotland, rockets will be taking off from launchpads from next year, delivering satellites into orbit for the first time from the UK
The UK Space Agency works hard every day to support this vibrant sector, and the entrepreneurs, engineers, enthusiasts and experts that make the UK one of the best places on Earth to work in space. It also manages the UK’s investments in, and membership of, the European Space Agency, an inter-governmental organisation independent of the European Union.
Space companies across the UK, large and small, are doing things that, until recently, you would be forgiven for thinking were science fiction: developing valuable materials in space that can’t be made on Earth, researching medicines in zero gravity, and safely operating hundreds of individual spacecrafts in tight-knit formations. There are currently 750 UK-licensed satellites circling the Earth, supporting an incredible range of activity vital to our daily lives and our economy: from how we connect with one another across the globe and monitor our environment, to how we protect our critical infrastructure. UK satellites bolster 5G connectivity, providing internet to hard-to-reach-areas, mapping the extent of natural disasters like floods and wildfires, and supporting the work of our armed forces. In Scotland, rockets will be taking off from launchpads in Sutherland and the Shetland Islands from next year, delivering satellites into orbit for the first time from the UK.
The space sector is also at the forefront of human discovery – with UK universities and research organisations continuing to build on their long history in space science and astronomy, and this work results in numerous benefits. The Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh built one of the instruments on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which is returning astonishing images of the early days of our universe. The production of the telescope generated technology that is currently being used by ophthalmologists to help guide laser eye surgery. The UK has major roles in the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission – launched in 2013 to create a 3D map of space, and which developed new data and imaging techniques that can be used to spot brain tumours in cancer patients as well as stars in distant galaxies.
Whichever way you look at it, there are remarkable things happening across the UK space sector. It’s a source of investment, a generator of high-skilled jobs and a factory of innovation and discovery. With the government’s commitment for record levels of R&D investment and a strong portfolio of projects and programmes at the UK Space Agency, the future is bright for the UK in space and the benefits this brings to people and businesses on Earth.
Martina Blake, Head of the Office for Project & Programme Management and deputy head of the Project Delivery Profession
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