Space Supply Chain and Market Dynamics
We had a fantastic panel for the seventh event in our UK Space Agency Business Horizons series. With so much insight available it’s no wonder the questions were coming thick and fast. We couldn’t answer all of them live, but as promised we will always follow up! We put all your questions to the experts at UK Space Agency and here is what they said.
If you want to watch the event and see everything that we DID cover, you can see the recording here.
What services or capabilities are the UK short of to be able to flourish and play a leading role in the world wide space sector?
UK Space Agency is considering how best to support space capabilities in the UK as part of the upcoming National Space Strategy, which will be published later in the summer. The Strategy will set out how the UK will play a leading role in the global space sector while delivering resilient UK space capabilities, by ensuring the UK can access systems on the ground and in space to protect our critical national infrastructure, support our global climate leadership, and provide services that improve lives around the world.
Great advice from Sean McCarthy from Satellite Applications Catapult regarding smaller SME's partnering with larger companies, what are the best routes to getting into these partnerships?
Companies need to consider entering the best tier within the supply chain. A lot of larger companies are keen to expand supply chains, but you could be better placed supplying a supplier or partnering with others rather than approaching directly. Companies should do their research about potential supply chains to understand who they should be supplying and that is not necessarily the primes. UKSA and others are undertaking studies around these supply chain challenges.
How do we entrepreneurs navigate the political and regulatory environment to really change the world?
The UK has put in place the Space Industry Act 2018, a flexible high-level regulatory framework to enable commercial launches to take place from the UK.
The Government consulted on the draft space industry regulations in 2020. A summary of the views received to the consultation and the Government’s response was published on 5th March 2021, setting out the changes the Government has made to the draft regulations and guidance material, and the next steps we will be taking for how we will regulate spaceflight activities, including Space Launch.
The feedback received was overwhelmingly supportive of the approach that the Government has taken and generally recognises the steps taken to ensure the regulations are non-prescriptive, flexible and allow for innovation as long as the intent of the regulations has been met. The Government has legislated to allow for the regulation of a wide-range of new commercial spaceflight technologies, including traditional vertically launched vehicles, air-launched vehicles and sub-orbital spaceplanes and balloons.
Our outcome-focussed regulatory framework is set to be the most modern space legislation in the world, with a focus on safety and the flexibility to accommodate emerging technological advancements, market opportunities and changes to the international legal landscape.
The process to lay the regulations before Parliament has begun and our aim is to have the regulations in force by Summer 2021, which will enable first launches from the UK from 2022.
There were 4-5 questions around the same very important theme: How do companies identify what is needed within the supply chain to find new opportunities? Is there a roadmap?
UKSA are continuously involved in roadmapping the Space sector, consulting with various stakeholders and Advisory functions. We also work closely with all the member states of the European Space Agency and we are fully engaged with their Harmonisation process. By building an overview of the current European R&D and setting out European space technology roadmaps we work with UK sector communities (through a process of consultation, coordination, harmonisation and agreement between ESA, its Member States, European Institutions, industry and other key stakeholders) where we establish joint roadmaps to help understand best technology opportunities and development.
More detail of how to engage with the roadmapping exercises will be available on the UKSA website when they become available.
What are the elements of the space supply chain?
The Size & Health of the UK Space Industry report 2018 is a good starting point for understanding the elements of space supply chains. From highlighting segmentation of the UK space economy to breaking down the UK space industry income by capability, activity and customer type gives a good overview of the many elements to the space supply chain.