To Infinity and Beyond! By Nick Freer

To infinity and beyond!  We all know space from the big screen, but the cosmos can also seem like a place in a galaxy far far away.  However, all things interstellar came into much closer view this week as the UK’s largest industry space event, Space-Comm Expo, landed in Glasgow.

With a focus on the commercial future of space, we were reminded that turnover in the UK sector reached over £17 billion in 2022, the latest recorded year, equating to around 6 per cent of the global space market.

Within the UK context, Scotland’s space sector is projected to achieve revenue of £4 billion within the next six years, more than doubling the current level of jobs, estimated to be in the region of 10,000 today.   

Among our starring domestic players is Scottish rocket manufacturer Orbex, recently raising £16.7 million, including a large cheque from Scottish National Investment Bank, as the company, whose technology is powered by renewable biofuel, gears up for the launch of its satellite transportation vessel Prime .  To date, Orbex has raised over £100 million from domestic and international VCs.

The UK’s only other rocket manufacturer, Skyrora, is also Scotland-headquartered, based in Glasgow with a manufacturing site in Cumbernauld.   On a similar trajectory to Orbex, the company’s three-stage Skyrora XL rocket, powered by 3D printed engines, continues to prepare for its inaugural launch at the Sutherland Spaceport, located on a remote site at the A’Mhoine peninsula, west of Tongue on Scotland’s north coast.

A relatively new entrant to the nation’s space conversation is the Scottish Space Network, which recently set out plans to secure more inward investment for the sector here.  Look out for a more informed piece here from its CEO, Dr Andy Campbell, next week.

Only a giant leap away from Space-Comm Expo, at Skypark in Glasgow’s Finnieston on Thursday evening, Scotland’s Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC) marked the opening of its ‘thebeyond’ campus, a facility comprising product development labs and co-working, that CEO and co-founder Paul Wilson says is set to be Europe’s largest “smart things” hub.

As STAC approaches its 3rd anniversary, with a blueprint based on his time in Ontario where a similar accelerator launched over 500 startups and created over 5,000 jobs, former Blackberry executive Wilson has ambition built into his DNA.

Writing for The Scotsman a few weeks’ back, STAC’s CEO puts it like this: “Scotland does not suffer from a lack of ambition. What we need is a robust system that continuously cultivates success, encouraging more Scots to realise their potential. At STAC we are dedicated to building this system and demonstrating that Scotland’s entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well.”

STAC has already helped to create and support over 50 early stage ventures in Scotland, companies who have collectively raised over £15 million, and equating to hundreds of jobs.

In June, STAC announced a strategic partnership with Volvo Cars to provide an innovation pipeline for the Swedish carmaker that is a pioneer in the global electric vehicle (EV) market, and a reminder of sorts that until Elon Musk takes humankind to Mars the majority of technology innovation will take place on terra firma.