UK Space Agency

Memorandum submitted by the

Association of Specialist Technical Organisations in Space (UKSA 12)

Overall Comments

The Association of Specialist Technical Organisations in Space (ASTOS) Is the trade association that represents the smaller organisations and SMEs that are working in the UK space sector. ASTOS represents 26 members with diverse capabilities. ASTOS would welcome the opportunity to present oral evidence to the Committee so that the SME view can be presented, and cross examined, in the clearest possible way.

The Association membership believe that it is too early to judge the progress or success of the UKSA as they have been in existence for such a little time. However, it is clear that within the time they have been operating so far, little, if anything, appears to have outwardly changed from when space policy was under the remit of BNSC.

Comments on Individual Questions

Q1: What progress has been made in setting up the UK Space Agency?

Little progress appears to have been made. The personnel within UKSA are the same as BNSC, the funding of the personnel is still coming from the same sources and budgets as under BNSC and there has not been enough time for the new strategic direction of the UKSA to have been set up.

New MoUs have recently been set up with Russia and NASA, but MoUs mean nothing without programmes and associated resources behind them.

With the current UKSA DG being a caretaker role, and no central UKSA funding, it is not surprising that there is a lack of leadership and drive to move things forward in a clear and rapid way. A high priority should be placed on appointing the new DG as soon as possible.

Q2: How does the UK Space Agency work with other bodies (national and international) on space issues?

After the announcement of the creation of an Agency, feedback from the International community, especially the European Space Agency, has been very positive as it is anticipated that there will be a new, strong and clear space policy coming from the UK with a single point of contact representing the UK position.

In reality, things have not improved, and in some respects have got worse, as the number of staff at the BNSC/UKSA disposal has reduced significantly over the last few years.

Q3: Is the UK Space Agency more effective at coordinating space policy than its predecessor, the British National Space Centre?

Not yet. As in Q2, in some respects it has got worse due to the lack of staff. The staff that are ‘UKSA’ are still funded by their respective organisations and still appear to operate in an isolated and, at times, partisan fashion.

The various ESA programmes are still being run by the respective organisations, ARTES by TSB, EO by NERC, science by STFC. There is no visible coordination between these programmes yet. The two UK national programmes, TechDemoSat and UKube, where coordination should be most apparent, are still clearly being managed ‘locally’ by the TSB and STFC respectively. UKube in particular, where there are significant technology development and associated commercial return aspects, is being managed in terms of science return and knowledge transfer with the academic community – as this is the STFC brief.

Q4: What should the UK Space Agency's priorities be for the next five years?

From an SME perspective, the most important priority is support for technology development. With continued problems raising finance to invest in next generation products, SMEs need UKSA support to encourage R&D in the sector. UK companies are at a significant disadvantage compared to their competitors and are often unable to develop the early stage technology know-how to bid into and leverage ESA and EU funding streams. A National Space Technology Programme, preferably targeted at the SME community, is essential if the space community is to attempt to achieve the growth targets and employment increases that were proposed in the recent Innovation and Growth Strategy.

Continued and growing funding for ESA programmes is also key to long term growth of the UK space industry.

Looking forward, BNSC and UKSA should consider ways of promoting and encouraging ‘true’ export opportunities in the emerging markets (e.g. India, China, Brazil) as well as the current players such as USA, Russia and Japan. Up to now, the UKSA primary focus has been very Euro-centric. They should also consider supporting more technologies that result in products that are reusable both on numerous future space missions, but also have significant spin-out into other market sectors. Up to now there has been a focus on funding support for specific missions and bespoke systems, as well as highly sophisticated, but one off, science instruments.

Q5: Is the UK Space Agency adequately funded?

Clearly not. There is a lack of staff to undertake the roles UKSA already has to manage. New staff need to be recruited from a wide background, most notably with a strong commercial background if the focus for the agency is to be to encourage economic growth. There is also no funding for National space technology development. Funding should be considered for National space missions that have applications that help grow the UK economy, generate large export opportunities for services, increase industrial productivity, increase National security or generate world class science.

Association of Specialist Technical Organisations in Space

August 2010