Government promises growth for space industry

The troubled Shetland SaxaVord Spaceport project has been saved. The £30 million rescue package for the ex-RAF station in Unst was announced the day after a rapidly rolled-out new UK space strategy was presented by the government.

SaxaVord, the UK's first fully-licensed spaceport, has regulatory approval for up to 30 rocket launches a year, with two German companies already signed up.

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said, ”Scotland already builds more satellites than anywhere else in Europe, and with a £30m UK government investment boost, SaxaVord is now poised to deliver up to three-quarters of the continent's orbital launch slots.”

But SaxaVord exemplifies the problems facing the UK’s space industry.

Accounts showed a technical default on a £10 million loan last year, highlighting the financial and practical difficulties faced by the sector. Unst has limited five-week ‘launch windows’ reduced by bad weather.

Regulatory limitations have also held back the industry. Following the failure of the UK’s first commercial space launch from Cornwall in January, the Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee heard that it cost one satellite company more money to get a launch licence than to physically put the satellite into space.

The importance of the space and related sectors ought not be underestimated. Government figures show the space industry generated £18.5 billion for the UK and employed over 55,000 people.

Landmark missions benefit from UK know-how, such as the UK-built Rosalind Franklin Mars Rover. 

UK Space Strategy

The new UK Space Strategy policy is backed by £7.8 billion of investment until 2030. Its mission is to safeguard the UK’s national security and defence capabilities, while exploiting technology opportunities. It brings the government’s space investment and activity under one plan.

Ministers said they wanted to create jobs and help Britain and its partners launch satellites without relying on countries ‘further afield’. The new policy formally replaces the previous National Space Strategy, published in 2021. 

The new UK Space Strategy expropriates existing policies and financing, including some that up until now were not regarded as being space-related.

Space Domain Awareness, the study and monitoring of objects like satellites, rockets and debris orbiting our planet, is being backed by projects including £149 million for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Vigil mission and £85 million for the National Space Operations Centre.

UK funding will see British tech offer earlier warnings of potential satellite collisions, hostile activity and solar storms, helping protect the power, communications and navigation services people rely on every day. 

Another £880 million will help beef up the UK’s space control and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, funding technologies that can track military activity on the ground and potential attacks on satellites. This should improve responsiveness and decision-making in protecting the country and its space assets. 

A further £2.8 billion will strengthen connectivity, including the Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit and SKYNET defence communications programmes. This plays a pivotal role in keeping the UK’s Armed Forces connected globally.

The new joined-up thinking is ambitious on announcements but less so on funding. The £7.8 billion has been pulled together from existing funding projects and brought under one umbrella.

Initiatives include £57 million already allocated by the Department for Transport to improve rail connectivity, £190 million from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for astronomy and space science research and £9 million from the Met Office which is funding that was already announced.