UK Space industry - Quick Analysis

The UK Space sector has had another successful year with record breaking investments, so is the future really bright for the UK?

If we look at the UK Space sector alone, turnover was around ￡15 billion, combine this with Aerospace, Space and Defence the turnover was in excess of ￡74 billion which is astonishing.

The UK now has its first vertical launch site planned in Sutherland, Scotland. The commercial launch demand is worth around a further ￡3.8 billion to the UK economy over the next decade. The launch site will create hundreds of jobs, support the local economy and support further growth of the UK’s space sector. Low cost access to space is critical for many SmallSat companies and given the UK leads the way manufacturing SmallSat’s, this is surely good news for SmallSat operators as it will smooth out the supply chain involved from manufacturing to launch.

The UKSA’s hope is that launch facilities will attract a host of launch providers to the UK, including traditional rockets launching vertically, new air-launch systems or point-to-point transportation systems for high-speed travel around the world. We have British companies that are looking to build new capabilities [such as] Skyrora, Orbex and Orbital Access which will in turn create more jobs.

If we look at the VC’s, up until the end of September 2018 the space index is showing around ￡2.5 billion total investment by the global VC community into space tech companies, so investors still see huge growth within the global space sector.

The UK manufacturers have been a fundamental partner to ESA for various projects such as the ExoMars mission. Airbus also manufacturers a quarter of the worlds telecommunication satellites. SSTL have already delivered 22 navigation payloads for Galileo, Europe’s satellite navigation system, with another 12 planned. On the operations side, we saw OneWeb and Sky and Space Global open their SOC’s in London, with other potential new entrants also looking to the UK to open up in 2019.

Although the UK has an extremely talented pool of candidates from within the Space sector, we are still reliant on being able to attract talent from within Europe. Whilst over the last few years Theresa May has been battling it out in Brussels to get the UK the best exit deal, has it really had a huge impact on being able to attract candidates from the likes of France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands? Having recruited hundreds of people into the Space sector over the last 15 years with a big focus on the UK, I would have to say no.

What I would say though is that with the huge drop in the ￡, salaries are becoming closer to what is earned in mainland Europe. People however still see the UK as a great place to live and to further their careers. The operators are leading the way as usual over the manufacturers in terms of salaries but is there still growth for the likes of Inmarsat and Avanti given their previous business models?

The space sector is seeing huge growth with small satellites and thousands of constellations planned over the coming years, so is this the end of manufacturing GEO satellites? GEO operators are currently fighting it out to take a bigger portion of the mobility market and we saw earlier this year Inmarsat and Panasonic Avionics joining forces, we also saw Yahsat acquiring Thuraya. In-flight connectivity will bring in huge revenues for these GEO operators, as well as IoT/M2M, so are these the two hottest subjects right now for operators? Operators such as SES and Inmarsat are also getting on-board with the UK’s Seraphim Space Fund, looking to back new innovative companies that they can help take to market.

The UK’s mission has always been to capture 10% of the global space market by 2030 which would be an incredible achievement for our small nation. I’m exceptionally proud to be part of this exciting industry and am thoroughly looking forward to seeing more innovative start ups come to market in the UK and helping us in part achieve the above mentioned goal. I truly believe that the UK Space sector is looking healthy and we will see continued growth throughout 2019.