Hampshire's international space projects backed by UK Space Agency funds

Space South Central, a space cluster covering the space industry in Hampshire, has won funding from the UK Space Agency.

Six of the clusters projects will receive £75,000 each as part of the UK Space Agency's £20 million International Bilateral Fund, an initiative that aims to boost research and investment in new technologies through worldwide collaborations.

A Space South Central project to tackle air pollution, weather forecasting and climate change in Singapore was one of the successful IBF bids.  Funding was also awarded to Earth-i (Guildford), In-Space Missions (Alton), LENA Space (Waterlooville), Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) (Guildford) and the University of Southampton.

Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “Working with other space agencies and organisations across the globe through our International Bilateral Fund allows us to draw on skills that enhance our homegrown expertise and capabilities, drive up investment in the UK, and support world-class science and discovery.

“These projects highlight the many ways in which we can collaborate with the global space community to help humanity push the boundaries of space innovation and unlock commercial opportunities that will benefit our economy now and in the future.”

"Working with Space South Central supports these goals by promoting UK expertise, attracting these partnerships and demonstrating our National Space Strategy vision of a thriving, resilient and well-connected space ecosystem across the whole of the UK.”

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Details of the projects that were awarded funded are listed below

LENA Space will be working with the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) to develop a concept for a satellite launch vehicle cryogenic turbopump.

In-Space Missions are developing Faraday Dragon, the first Asia-Pacific regional and multi-agency technology and business accelerator programme created to provide regular in-orbit payload rideshare missions.

Earth-i is working with Planet Labs PBC in the UK to develop a novel approach to achieving high-revisit surveillance of sites of interest.

The University of Southampton is partnering with the University of Michigan and several UK and US start-ups to improve the UK’s Hall thruster capability.

Space South Central academics from its partner universities of Surrey, Portsmouth, and Southampton are developing a new Earth observation mission to help Singapore manage climate change.

SSTL is working with UK counterparts Assimilia and RALSpace, and CSIRO Space and Astronomy and Smartsat CRC in Australia, to create an integrated ground-to-space national water quality monitoring system.

Dr Louise Butt, Director of the Space South Central Enterprise Network, said: “It’s great to see so many of our organisations win IBF funding and we’re looking forward to following their projects’ progress. International collaborations are a key part of the National Space Strategy and fundamental to space sector growth and bringing investment and jobs to the region. 

“Although we represent the regional space sector, our businesses – large and small, new and established - and our world-class universities, have a global impact and a breadth of space capabilities unrivalled anywhere in the UK.

“We connect organisations from home and abroad and support our members to access funding and investment opportunities like the IBF.  Our newly-recruited International Partnerships Manager means that we’ll be able to help more Space South Central projects and technology reach a global audience.”

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