Space race heats up

SERCO and Inmarsat are among the companies that have formed a UK national space team.

The pair will work with the British arm of American defence giant Lockheed Martin and CGI UK on the project, which has been called Athena.

The group’s work will focus on developing space technology that will enable things like driverless transport, secure communications for defence and 5g networks. The government is keen for the UK’s space industry to grow rapidly to a £500bn sector.

It is pushing for a bigger role in the global industry after the UK was shut out of the EU’s £10bn galileo satellite programme after the Brexit vote.