The Debate: Is investing in space tourism irresponsible? Opinion Blue Origin's star-studded space flight caused more backlash than awe, but is all space tourism frivolous? Two writers hash it out.
UK to land Europe’s first rover on Mars Tech Airbus UK has secured a £150m contract to engineer the landing platform for Europe’s first Mars rover. The Rosalind Franklin rover, which was built entirely in Stevenage, is scheduled to launch in 2028 and touch down on the red planet in 2030, marking a major milestone in European space exploration. The mission, led by European [...]
Tech secretary hails space sector as a ‘launchpad’ for growth Tech Science secretary Peter Kyle has hailed the UK space sector‘s recent achievement as proof that the UK is a “launchpad for innovation and investment”. The field has secured £80m more in European Space Agency (ESA) contracts than government contributions in late 2024, the highest return for any ESA member state. This success is set to [...]
Orbex: Rocket-maker secures £20m investment from UK government ahead of take off January 29, 2025 The UK government has invested £20m in rocket-maker Orbex as it prepares to build and launch from its site in the Shetland Islands. The injection of funding is expected to help back Orbex’s Prime, the first UK-manufactured and UK-launched orbital rocket. Prime is scheduled to take off towards the end of this year at the [...]
British firm Filtronic scores another multi-million contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX August 30, 2024 Microwave technology firm Filtronic has scored another multi-million-pound contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, it revealed today. The London-listed company, which is headquartered in Leeds and supplies products to the aerospace, defence, space and telecoms infrastructure sectors, said the $8.4m (£6.4m) production order from the satellite internet company was a positive sign that demand remained high for [...]
Watch: Rocket engine explodes at a UK spaceport in the Shetland Islands August 20, 2024 Spacecraft firm Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) said no-one was injured in the explosion and regular operations would return "as soon as possible."
How to get UK space SMEs beyond the final investment frontier May 6, 2024 The UK has 2000 space SMEs but few have managed to scale. With the right incentives and regulatory environment the industry can go interstellar, says Andrew Turner Shipping in the 1700s, cars in the 1800s and aviation in the 1900s – throughout history London has been the global hub for financing era-defining technology. I believe [...]