U.K. government preparing to release new space strategy
The British government is preparing to release a new space strategy that will provide a "whole-of-government" approach for space in the country.
Speaking at the Spacetide conference in Tokyo last week, Rebecca Evernden, director of the U.K. Space Agency, said the strategy, set for release "in the coming weeks," would provide guidance for civil, commercial and national security space activities.
"That strategy will be framed around two outcomes, which are economic growth and national security," she said. "Everything that we will do will be aligned with those two outcomes."
The strategy, she said, will focus on four areas: satellite communications, launch, space domain awareness and space sustainability, and in-space servicing and manufacturing. She didn't elaborate on those plans beyond accelerating development and investment in those areas.
The government has already announced plans for new investment in national security space. The U.K. Ministry of Defence released on June 30 a Defence Investment Plan that includes an additional 2.3 billion pounds ($3.1 billion) for satellite communications and 880 million pounds for space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, and space control through 2030.
The funds would go to several projects, including a sovereign ISR system and joint operations of deep-space tracking radars with Australia and the United States. The strategy calls for an additional 9 billion pounds of investment in space defense systems from 2030 to 2035, although it would not develop a Skynet 6 narrowband UHF satellite system as previously planned.
"National security, bringing together civil and defense priorities, is important, which strengthens our nation's resilience overall," Evernden said. "We'll focus efforts on the capabilities and markets that matter most in that context."
She also emphasized the role of international partnerships for the United Kingdom. That included the "great emphasis and importance" of its role in the European Space Agency and the importance of partnerships with the United States.
Japan is another important partner for the United Kingdom, she said, calling the country a "priority partner" in the U.K. space strategy. "We have a lot in common," she said, from investment in space technologies to commitments to open markets and a rules-based international order.
Evernden was in Japan as part of a U.K. delegation of space companies seeking to do business there. "The breadth and quality of the 19 companies represented here underlines the depth of U.K. capabilities and a strong appetite to work with Japanese partners," she said.
During another panel at the conference, she said the agency was working to help space companies in the U.K. expand globally. "Sometimes it's difficult to know where to start if you're a small company and you don't have experts in markets overseas," she said.
An example of a partnership in the other direction is Astroscale, the Tokyo-based satellite servicing company with an office in the United Kingdom. That office has grown from an initial five employees to nearly 200, she said.
"What Astroscale saw in the U.K. was an indication that we wanted to focus heavily on space sustainability and debris removal, and they targeted the U.K. for that reason," she recalled. "They thought we would be the ones who would license their first mission, and that was correct."
Evernden became director of the U.K. Space Agency in April at the same time the agency, which had previously been an independent entity, was folded into the government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, or DSIT. Some in the U.K. space industry feared the move would diminish the role of the agency and the importance of space in the British government.
Evernden, who was previously director for space within DSIT, said the move has worked well so far, creating a single agency for topics ranging from policy development to operations.
"We're responsible for coordinating and delivering right across the government on civil space policy," she said. "What that does is it allows us to have a stronger, coherent one-government voice to share our ambitions and our goals with people right across the U.K. and internationally."
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