Scottish space sector calls for increased funding in strategy review

In the wake of business minister Richard Lochhead’s announcement that a review of Scotland’s space strategy is on the cards for 2026, Holyrood asked key players in the Scottish space sector what they are hoping for from the strategy.  

Speaking at the Space-Comm expo in Glasgow, Lochhead announced the review, designed to look at the future of Scotland’s growing space sector. The sector is predicted to be worth around £4bn to the Scottish economy by 2030.

Announcing the plans, Lochhead said: “When I entered politics, Scotland did not have a recognised space sector in any organised sense. Today we build satellites, we develop launch systems, we produce world-class electronics and sensors, and operate ground stations and deliver data services used around the world.”

One of the companies at the cutting edge of Scotland’s space sector is Skyrora, a Scottish-based rocket designer and manufacturer which has launched three rockets in the eight years since its founding. A fourth rocket, its biggest one so far, is ready to launch when a suitable site is secured.  

Derek Harris, director of business development and communications at Skyrora said: “The review is probably a very good thing at this time because a lot of companies are on that knife edge for scaling purposes. Whatever comes out of it, whether it's more money or whether it's tax incentives, there is a huge amount being done and I welcome it coming along because it shows how important the space sector is to Scotland.”

Scotland is home to five of the seven spaceports being developed across the UK, with figures showing that Glasgow produces more small satellites than anywhere else in Europe.  

The UK Government recently announced plans to set out a strategic approach to supporting the Scottish space sector after a warning from the Scottish Affairs Committee that Scotland was at risk of losing a “generational opportunity” to become the European leader in space launch without proper investment.

Colin Baldwin, executive director of UKspace, a trade association for the UK’s space sector, said: “The important thing really for Scotland is scale. Scotland has that end-to-end capability developing, but it also has the upstream space sector, so the hardware development centres and satellite manufacturers, all of which have already been launched. The next step is to scale all of that up.”

In its previous space strategy, published in October 2021, the Scottish Government focused on the development of this small satellite capability. Applications for these satellites range from Earth and space observation to communications, security, defence and national space programmes.

Axon Cable is a French company that supplies Scottish manufacturers with the high-tech cables and connectors required to build small satellites. The company has seen its connectors used on the International Space Station and in manned and unmanned flights to space.

Nigel Kellett, business development manager at Axon Cable, said: “One thing that would be good to see from either central or the Holyrood government is to say it's not good enough just to talk your game and say what our aspirations are and everything else. You need to, to some extent put your money where your mouth is.”

Earlier this week the UK Space Agency announced an investment of £3.8m into the space sector in Scotland. Three Scottish universities will benefit from the funding designed to “accelerate breakthrough technologies and boost commercialisation” in the sector.

In comparison, the U.S. invests around $25.4bn annually in Nasa and the German government has pledged to invest €35bn into its military space capabilities by 2030.

Commenting on funding for space, Lochhead said: “The Scottish Government needs to do more and, of course, my message to the UK government is we have to do a lot more financially as well. Otherwise, we are going to get outdone by all other nations and the planet."