Space hubs, companies and bridges
The UK is growing as a centre for spaceflight innovation
As well as spaceports, other initiatives are helping to bolster the UK spaceflight sector, one example of which is Space Park Leicester, which officially opened in March 2022.
“It’s a university-owned space facility, built around the idea that we host space businesses in the same facility as the researchers work,” says Martin Barstow, their director of strategic partnerships and a professor of astrophysics and space science at the University of Leicester. “Space is expensive. In terms of building things like clean rooms, they’re costly. They’re beyond the means of small companies.”
Making such facilities available in the Space Park reduces the cost of access for small and mediumsized enterprises and start-ups, he adds. They are also able to lean on the academic expertise in space that already exists at the university, which has some 300 people working in the area.
As well as small companies, start-ups and university spin-offs, some aerospace giants such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have also joined, setting up small groups that work alongside their larger UK facilities.
“Space is an obvious next step for us for the ambitions that the UK has put in place,” says Lockheed Martin’s Nik Smith, noting that the UK government has put in “very strong structures around a broad space strategy”. These include the UK’s Space Strategy and Spaceflight Programme which, combined with capital coming into the country for space, is creating a strong environment for innovation.
The UK’s work on building strong international relationships also makes it an attractive hub to reach into new markets. The UK has already signed several partnerships – such as the UK–Australia Space Bridge and a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency – with the aim of increasing international cooperation into the future, and cementing our position as a space power on the international stage.