A PASSION FOR SPACE
The UK Space Agency’s Director of Growth.
O ur space sector is a UK success story. Its employees are more than twice as productive as the UK average and growth has been extraordinary, with revenues tripling since 2000. It employs 38,000 people and supports at least £250 billion a year across the economy. More than a third of the sector’s £13.8 billion revenues are generated by exports, and there is a significant ambition to boost this further by building new partnerships with space nations across the world. Between 2010 and 2016, UK public spending on space research and development increased by over 50% from £270 million per year to £410 million.
The real potential for further growth is in the services and applications that space can deliver, from improving farm management and reducing rail delays to enabling the cost-effective rollout of 5G. These can grow the UK economy when adopted by other sectors as they can both improve productivity and produce benefits to society.
We are also working to make the UK a one-stop shop for new satellite services. Global forecasts show an increase in demand for commercial satellite launch services from 2020s, and we are working to help UK companies seize this opportunity.
In July we announced £31.5 million of funding to support a spaceport in Sutherland, on top of £2m to support the development of horizontal launch, with potential spaceports in Newquay, Llanbedr and Glasgow. This funding, along with modern legislation – the Space Industry Act – makes it an exciting time for the UK space industry. New small satellite constellations are forecast to create a £10 billion global launch opportunity over the next 10 years.
Rocketing profits
This will help us reach our ambition for the UK space sector to grow its share of an expanding global space economy from its current seven per cent to 10 per cent by 2030, by which time the global space marketplace will be worth, conservative forecasts estimate, $600 billion per annum.
Space is also now recognised as providing critical national infrastructure to the UK. Commercial investment can complement this with new space capabilities and the global markets are there and accessible to UK businesses to sustain high levels of UK sector growth.
The ‘New Space’ era of cheaper access is being driven by a revolution in technology and business models delivered by entrepreneurs and commercial investment. The latest satellite network proposals are designed with many small satellites in constellations, delivering truly ubiquitous observation and connectivity from space. This trend is accelerating and the UK is well placed to take advantage of it. Commercial companies are exploiting strengths in services and entrepreneurs are interested in investing in the UK. Organisations including the UK Space Agency and the Satellite Applications Catapult will foster future growth.
Our support for the European Space Agency (ESA) is also an important part of our growth, enabling the UK to participate in major science and exploration projects and giving us access to R&D and expertise generated from ESA’s 4.5bn annual budget. Participating in ESA’s R&D programmes has underpinned UK competitiveness and European leadership in satellite communications, Earth observation and applications, and will continue to do so for many years to come.