UK ambition to become a commercial spaceflight provider
The UK’s ambition to become the leading commercial spaceflight provider in Europe by 2030 is definitely not going into the radar: as part of its £2.7M programme announced last month to accelerate the creation of a UK launch supply chain, £123K grant has been awarded to the aerospace manufacturing specialist TISICS Agency. The company aims to develop demisable launcher components that will reduce the risk of damage to spacecraft by space debris.
Moreover, as two spaceports being built in Scotland are months away from their first orbital lift-offs, the Scottish Government announced the formation of the Scotland International Space Advisory Committee (Sisac) to advise ministers and companies on how to maximise opportunities for the sector. It consists of Scots connected to the international space industry such as Yvette Hopkins, who played a vital role in developing the SaxaVord Spaceport project, and believes firmly the UK’s first vertical rocket launch will be a landmark for the isles space sector.
Talking about upcoming spaceflight, why not take the time to reflect on the top European launch companies of 2022?
Growing Earth Observation market potential
According to a new report from Euroconsult, the Earth Observation data and services markets topped a combined $4.6B in 2021 and are set to reach $7.9B by 2031. This is notably good news for new entrants of the Earth Observation satellite manufacturing market such as Open Cosmos, an Oxfordshire-based company who just successfully launched its environment monitoring 6U nanosatellite in a time where the link between space and climate is clearer than ever. But this is of course also a great opportunity for service providers. In this latter category, Kleo Space made news by making its ISR geospatial intelligence product LOCATE available to initial customers. In an effort to lower its CAPEX spending, the company uses algorithm advancements to facilitate ingestion of raw data from other sensors in addition to those it owns.
