UK: UK is all set to take on the EU’s Galileo satellite navigation project as it has invested £92million in rival space programme.
Although 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 percent of the world’s small satellites are made in the UK.
