The UK Space Agency is awarding £325,000 to the UK
Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) to
bring the latest space science to children and families
across the UK.
This will help create new resources based on real
scientific and engineering challenges, including those
facing the operation of UK spaceports, rockets and
spaceplanes.
Together, up to 14 UK science centres and museums will
deliver activities to 200,000 children and adults until
March 2021, building on the success of ASDC’s Destination
Space education programme, which reached more than 900,000
people during Tim Peake’s Principia mission.
As the Launch UK programme continues to build momentum, a
further £600,000 is on offer for businesses capable of
providing range control
services. These cover a wide variety of tasks from
tracking rockets and spaceplanes in flight, to notifying
users of airspace when launches are taking place.
The UK space sector is growing rapidly and there is a
global movement towards the commercialisation of space
activities. Through the government’s modern Industrial
Strategy, the UK Space Agency is at the heart of
capitalising on these exciting developments for the UK,
helping to generate new jobs, economic growth and
opportunities in science, technology and industry.
Speaking at the Appleton Space Conference at the Harwell
Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire, Dr Graham
Turnock, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency said:
Our spaceflight programme includes a series of education
and outreach activities, focusing on space launch from
the UK, which I hope will play a major role in inspiring
the next generation of space scientists, engineers and
entrepreneurs.
We have also published a new call for proposals to
deliver range control services, which are vital for
ensuring the safety of UK spaceflight operations once
they look to begin in a few years’ time.
The UK Space Agency has also funded 21 new Pathfinder
projects from its National Space Technology
Programme, offering funding and support to those looking to
develop technology and build new capabilities for the UK
space sector.
In March this year, the Space Industry Act 2018 came into
law. This was followed in July by the award of £31.5
million of grants from the Industrial Strategy to support
the development of a proposed spaceport in Sutherland,
Scotland, and the commercial operations of Lockheed Martin
and Orbex from the site.
In November, European businesses Eutelsat Communications
and Airbus Defence and Space signed a deal worth hundreds
of millions of euros which will see satellite components
and major parts assembled in Portsmouth and Stevenage,
before final assembly is completed in Toulouse, France.
This has been followed by another commercial announcement
today between UK company Inmarsat, a world leader in global
mobile satellite communications, and Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries, Ltd. (MHI), in which Inmarsat becomes the first
commercial customer to place an order for MHI’s new launch
vehicle, H3.
Welcoming that announcement, Business Secretary , said:
Science and innovation have no borders, as long-term
strategic partnerships like this one built on excellence
between Inmarsat in the UK and Mitsubishi in Japan
demonstrate. The space sector is a UK success story and
an industry that is growing globally, a year since the
launch of our modern industrial strategy, we continue to
build on our commitment to space, including through the
announcement of the UK’s first spaceports and record
investment in our world leading science base.
