UK set to take on EU Galileo project as £92m invested in rival space programme

THE UK could dwarf European space programmes, industry leaders have suggested after £92million was committed to an alternative to rival the EU’s Galileo satellite navigation project.

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But a sustained national space programme is needed if the UK wants to take a bigger slice of the global market. The UK’s space industry has seen more venture capital funds committed in the past three years than the previous 15 years combined. But industry executives state that what the industry “really needs” is a sustained national space programme to run alongside investments into the European Space Agency, which is independent of the EU.

A robust national programme is believed to be the key to unlocking private investment and leverage success in the industry.

Richard Peckham, chairman of UKspace, the industry trade body said: “We have had some ad hoc national investment in individual programmes… but what industry really needs now is a sustained national space programme running alongside out investment in the European Space Agency just like other EU countries such as France and Germany.”

The space industry is the fastest growing sector of Britain’s economy and according to Angus Horner, director of the Harrell Campus Partnership, about 44 per cent of the world’s small satellites are made in the UK.

He believes the sector is in a “more robust state than a decade ago” and said: “We have a very interesting ability to do some things quite well.

In 2010 the UK Space Agency set the ambitious target of seizing 10 per cent of the global space market by 2030 - a sector dominated by the US, Russia, China and India.

Despite Brexit threatening some of the industry’s larger companies, especially as the UK has been told it will be shut out of the EU’s Galileo project, there is still a sense of optimism within the industry.

Unlike France or Italy the UK has prioritised investments that will deliver commercial returns.

As a result, the UK space industry is dominated by strong commercial sectors such as broadcasting and communications, which account for about three-quarters of all income generated by the industry, according to a 2016 report by London Economics, the research consultancy.

Total income between 2014-15 was £13.7 billion.

Mark Bogged, chief executive of Seraphim Capital, the world’s first expenditure fund dedicated to the space infusers, said while the sector “seems to get shortchanged on the allocation of public finds,” private capital has been pouring in.

More venture capital funds have been committed in the past three years in the UK than the previous 15 years combined.

One area that has seen rapid expansion is the Harwell Space Cluster in Oxfordshire, which grew at 19% over the last 12 months.

Harwell grew from 80 organisations in December 2017 to 89, that make up the UK’s most concentrate group of commercial, public and academic organisations focused on space innovation.

Despite the sector’s impressive growth, the SGP says a national programme is still so important.

In May SGP published ‘Prosperity From Space’ which says a robust national programme is key to unlocking private investment.

The document says: “We must… address the fault lines running through our current way of working, chief of which is the absence of a joined up, UK-focused, long-term national programme that allows us to unlock the full potential of our industrial-academic powerbase.”