Brexit Britain shoots for the stars – UK’s space programme is rocketing

Leaving the EU’s bloated ‘Galileo’ project behind, the UK is ready to go into orbit

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2022

Major Facts4EU.Org report on first satellite launches from UK soil, as UK spaceports start taking off

On Tuesday last week the Government announced the UK’s first space launches from British soil will take place this summer. From Cornwall in the deep south-west, to the Shetland Islands in the far north-east, Brexit Britain has a great story to tell. Last week the space news just kept on taking off.

On Friday (13 May 2022) the Government’s announcement was followed up by impressive official figures from the UK Space Agency. Employment in the booming UK space sector is now up to nearly 50,000 across the UK, with revenues of £16.5bn in 2020 alone.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Latest official information and figures on UK’s booming space industry

First-ever space launches from British soil to take place this summer in Cornwall
Shetlands-based SaxaVord announced partnership with Astra Space Inc for satellite launches
Another Scottish company, Orbex, revealed prototype of first-ever vertical rocket system from UK soil

Employment in the UK space sector hit 46,995 in 2020, up by almost 3,000 (+6.7%)
Space sector income increased to £16.5 billion
Exports accounted for around a third (32%) of this total
Space manufacturing, including satellites, spacecraft, launch vehicles, instruments, increased to £2.27 billion
Meanwhile the EU’s space programme is 15 years late and massively over budget

Photo credit: SaxaVord UK - click to enlarge

Brexit Britain is jetting off this summer…. into space

We start with the launch of satellites this summer from Cornwall.

1. Spaceport Cornwall

Built by Hampshire-based ‘In-Space Missions Ltd’ (now part of BAE Systems), Prometheus-2 is a collaboration between the UK Ministry of Defence and international partners including the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

The first two launches will take place from Spaceport Cornwall https://spaceportcornwall.com/ - an exciting development which heralds the birth of a new era for high-tech jobs in the post-Brexit world in the West Country.

Built in Brexit Britain, collaborating with global partners, launched from the UK

Director Space at the MoD, Air Vice Marshal Harv Smyth, said:

“This is a great example of the power of international collaboration – a key tenet of our Defence Space Strategy. Prometheus 2 will deliver immense value to the UK MoD’s future space programme and, thanks to our partners in the National Reconnaissance Office, this highly-capable satellite will launch from UK soil this summer.
“I am hugely proud of what we have achieved together and this is just the beginning.”
- Director Space at the MoD, Air Vice Marshal Harv Smyth, 10 May 2022

The Prometheus-2 rockets will initially be carried on a modified Boeing 747 jet from Virgin Orbit named Cosmic Girl, before being dropped from the aircraft and then powering off into space.

As if the news from Cornwall were not enough this week, at the other end of the country we have both SaxaVord UK and Orbex Systems. On Tuesday these Scottish companies separately each announced important news in the UK’s space race.

2. SaxaVord Spaceport, Shetlands

SaxaVord UK in Shetland is a fast-growing company. On Tuesday thay announced a partnership with Astra Space Inc to provide dedicated orbital launch services to a growing European satellite market. Astra was the first space launch company to be publicly traded on Nasdaq.

Located on the Lamba Ness peninsula on the island of Unst, the spaceport will host up to three launch pads and three integration hangars, each for shared or exclusive use.

Left: Island of Unst, Shetland - Location of the new SaxaVors spaceport. Photo courtesy of SaxaVord UK (click to enlarge).

Subject to definitive agreements and regulatory approvals, SaxaVord Spaceport rocket launches are expected to begin in 2023.

““Without belief a vision cannot be realised and without persistence a vision will fail. We believed and we persisted, and our vision is now reality. SaxaVord is the UK’s Pathfinder Space Port.”
- Frank Strang, CEO, SaxaVord UK

“This agreement between SaxaVord Spaceport and Astra is great news for Shetland and represents another step towards our shared ambition of bringing vertical launch satellite capability to Scotland.”
“Companies like this are vital to achieving the aims of our National Strategy for Economic Transformation that will support a nation of entrepreneurs and innovators in areas like small satellite technology and Scotland’s growing space industry.”
- Ivan McKee, Scottish Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise

The new SaxaVord UK spaceport has been designed to host a wide variety of launch missions on rockets with payloads of up to 1.5 tonnes. Shetland has a long history of serving and supplying complex industries such as oil & gas with sophisticated engineering needs and excellent logistics, and looks well-placed to capture a proportion of the European market.

3. Orbex, Forres, Scotland

Also on Tuesday last week, Scottish company Orbex unveiled the first of a new generation of launch vehicles designed to propel the new generation ‘micro-satellites’ into orbit. The company claims this will represent the first ever vertical rocket launch to orbit from UK soil.

It is scheduled to take place at a new test facility in Kinloss, Scotland. Orbex´s Prime rocket is the first 'micro-launcher' developed in Europe to reach this stage of technical readiness, says the company.

The 1,293 space organisations the length and breadth of the UK

According to the UK Government, there are now 1,293 space organisations located across the UK (including Northern Ireland), with Scotland responsible for around one fifth of the entire UK space workforce.

Spaceports in Scotland, Wales and England are expected to generate more jobs in the coming years, alongside the growth of regional space clusters, international investment, and emerging technologies such as in-space manufacturing and debris removal.

On Friday Science Minister George Freeman MP said:

“The £16.5 billion space sector is a major contributor to a strong and secure UK economy, and it’s promising to see it generate thousands of new high-skilled jobs in the face of global economic headwinds.”
“As we support new SpaceTech clusters from Spaceports in Cornwall and Scotland to satellite manufacturing and robotics from Glasgow to Warwick to Stevenage, this will help level-up the UK. Looking ahead to the first satellite launches from the UK this year, this is an exciting time for this high growth sector up and down the country.”
Rt Hon George Freeman MP, Science Minister, 13 May 2022

Meanwhile in the EU, there’s a space-time continuum, costing an astronomical amount of money

For many years the EU has been working on its ‘Galileo’ and ‘Copernicus’ space projects. Facts4EU.Org has previously reported on the EU’s space ambitions, with a comprehensive suite of detailed reports.

French-dominated, massively over-budget, and many years overdue, following the Brexit vote the EU nevertheless chose to exclude the UK from its space programmes, supposedly on security grounds. When the UK starts launching these will be the first launches from a (western) European country.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

So far the Galileo Project has taken 28 years from initiation in 1994
This EU taxpayer-funded and EU Commission-managed SatNav system is still only 73% complete
The UK was a major funder and a significant provider of technical expertise
The original deadline for completion passed 15 years ago
The budget has rocketed to 17 times the original figure
The project has missed so many deadlines it’s impossible to say when it will be completed
So far it has been 28 years in the making and 15 years overdue from its first deadline
None of the launches have taken place from European soil

Observations

From Cornwall to the Shetland Islands, Brexit Britain is taking off

The area of space technology and the burgeoning industry it is creating was one of those where Remainer scientists, (and they are mostly of that inclination), claimed that the UK would be left behind if it left the European Union.

Instead it seems that Brexit Britain is rocketing ahead. With three major space announcements on the same day last week – one in Cornwall and two in Scotland – the UK’s ingenuity and innovation seems to be undiminished.

New jobs are being created all over the United Kingdom and revenues and exports are on an upward trend.

The EU’s vindictiveness towards Brexit Britain has backfired on the launchpad

Once again it seems that by the EU excluding the UK from its space programme – as it has done with its science programme ‘Horizon’ – the EU Commission has been left on the launchpad.

Facts4EU.Org has always maintained that the UK should never participate in the EU’s programmes post-Brexit. Overly bureaucatic and hugely expensive, the UK would have been expected once again to fund a large proportion of the costs. We would never have got value for money.

Instead, we should co-operate with our European neighbours as far as possible and get on with the nimble and agile moves we are starting to make as an independent country.

As the RAF motto has it: “Per ardua ad astra” - "Through adversity to the stars".

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Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Mon 16 May 2022

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Reader Comments 11

1. Tom , Monday, May 16, 2022, 09:06:

It's slightly misleading to imply that Brexiteers, who comprise mostly of high school leavers, have successfully applied their, seemingly, all-encompassing capabilities to advanced physics too.
A vote where the majority did not turn up is possible but not space flight, c'mon.

2. Robert Mcdonald , Monday, May 16, 2022, 09:40:

I'm pleased to find out that our future is in good hands with so many high school leavers understanding the pitfalls of the eurocracy. I hadn't realised our education system could produce such wisdom. Put that together with the wisdom of old age and the red wall and there we have it ... we have left the eu.

3. Adam , Monday, May 16, 2022, 09:44:

Tom you are a typical Remoaner traitor just go away Fool glad We are not at war with people like you around you would Putin to be given a state visit how is your beloved EU doing lately

4. Tom , Monday, May 16, 2022, 13:56:

2. Robert Mcdonald
Most of us can read books but not all of us do. Contrast that with the fact that
none of us can read the future. Not even 'deeply understanding' high school drop-outs.
I'm only pleased I have an education as my guide & many, many years left
if my innings were limited to three score & ten.
Education imparts knowledge, the transformative effect of that knowledge may or may not
bring about wisdom. Age is not a guarantee of attaining or a means by which to claim wisdom.
The future is in good hands, on that at least we agree.
New voters are churned out every day, as are graduates.
I doubt we'll vote your way when given the chance though.

5. Tom , Monday, May 16, 2022, 14:05:

3 Adam
How uncanny but timely that you brought up the topic of traitors.
There is a book I doubt you'll ever read, but highly recommend -
"Chums, How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK."
It features Gove, Johnson, Cummings etc... you know, the usual.
A sobering realisation in it is that in politics, it would appear that “Churchill had been replaced by Bertie Wooster.”
In it, Kuper also compares the Cambridge/Oxford spies to Brexiters.
While admitting it's an unfair comparison, he continues
“Though both betrayed Britain’s interests in the service of Moscow, the Brexiters did it by mistake.”
If only we had taxpayer funded intelligence reports to put this to bed once & for all.
I don't know about the spy stuff but what's your opinion? Any validity in his conclusion?
Just thought I'd ask a Brexiteer while you were casually throwing the word "traitor" about
without any reference to literature in the public domain. Well, there is mine.
We could, at length, discuss how this war came about but it'd be best for all
if you just took up reading for yourself instead.

6. jon livesey , Monday, May 16, 2022, 15:09:

It's funny how any mention of "Space" brings out the barmies, isn't it? Space is a business these days. It isn't Dan Dare. And the UK already has a very large Space Industry. Industry, as in people going to work to do things every day, not tin-foil hat stuff.

7. Tom , Monday, May 16, 2022, 15:34:

6. jon
I couldn't understand Adam either :)
Anyhow, space is a business.. that's the concern.
In the Brexiteers haste to adhere to their "get it done" slogan - they let slip what they thought about business.
Fishermen who doubted their sincerity found themselves in troubled waters full of happy fish.
Personally, I support space intiatives, being something of a science buff & employed in a STEM field.
Which is why I can only hope that Scotland does not vote to to leave the union, as you did that other union.

8. Ashley Great Britain , Monday, May 16, 2022, 16:38:

The EU are quite happy to drag their space program on.
Lots of extra money can be skimmed from the top on a nearly permanent basis.
It's a bit like cancer research. Do these big companies really want to pack up shop having found the cure.
Britain would have launched a space craft 20 years ago, If we weren't so hindered by the EU.
Think of all our waisted money and expertise ploughed into the Eu's bottomless pit.
The great thing about our Eu exclusion, Is that we can keep our money talent and secrets to ourselves.
The EU will always loose out in the future, Not least because of their attitude towards others.

9. jon livesey , Monday, May 16, 2022, 17:37:

7. Tom . You write "Anyhow, space is a business.. that's the concern." What concern is that, exactly? The UK Space Industry generates about £15bn a year and employs about 45,000 people. And the UK just signed an agreement with the US to cooperate on the commercialization of Space. This is *business*. This isn't about ray guns or "being a buff". It is about professionals doing their jobs.
Are we supposed to think that the professionals are all asleep, and only some little troll is aware of the "concerns"?

10. Tom , Monday, May 16, 2022, 18:56:

9. Jon,
We could go back & forth but I just gave you an instance where the official position about an entire industry that just did not pan out. We can't afford any more surprises like that, surely.
Rather than take it on the chin, blame went to the EU . Always does around here.
Can't we admit that maybe there is room for improvement in some areas?
Without worsening an already bad situation & taking on even larger deals without
learning from our recent performance?
We can't continue to bad mouth them while in active negotiations.
It's neither prudent nor wise. But t's never too late.
All here probably think I'm pro EU. That is untrue.
I just think we needlessly wasted the ride on the back of a large, albeit slow, giant turtle that swam,
for a fee, across a tumultous stretch of water. Having voluntarily walked the plank, mid-journey,
we're now truly on an island, as the waters rise.
As if that weren't bad enough, it's all happening in the age of rising (and possibly falling) superpowers.
PS: I'm not a troll, I actually come here in the hope that there will be a relation between daily political events at home as they relate to our current EU situation But, there never is. Maybe that's why I provide the other half that is on every other paper & is no secret :)

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