The UK has a thriving space industry that employs almost 16,000 people and has an annual turnover of around £2.9 billion.
British space offers a diverse range of expertise including the manufacture of satellites, scientific instrumentation, battery technologies, software development and data analysis systems.
The UK’s space industry has participated in several missions to explore the Solar System, including Giotto, Rosetta, Cassini, Huygens, Mars Express and Beagle 2. British companies are also participating in industrial studies for the first robotic missions in the European Space Agency’s Aurora Programme to explore Mars.
UK companies are world leaders in the development of microsatellites, which provide low-cost access to space for both governments and commercial users. Projects such as the Disaster Monitoring Constellation, an international constellation of small satellites that can be used individually or combined to monitor natural or man-made disasters, show the potential of these innovative spacecraft.
The UK also builds some of the largest and most powerful satellites in commercial use and is at the forefront of the satellite communications industry.
British companies are leading the way in developing commercial services from Earth observation data. Examples include monitoring of crops under the Common Agricultural Policy, providing early warning of pollution from oil slicks and providing signal propagation data for the mobile phone industry.
UK goes to the Planets website
(details of UK industrial involvement in planetary missions)
The British National Space Centre’s industry pages
- www.bnsc.gov.uk/index.cfm?pid=233
The UK Space Industry website
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