Ambition, knowledge and opportunity for space industry
Ambition, knowledge and opportunity were the main themes of the debate “Space Growth Agenda: a plan for continued growth, jobs and innovation opportunities” on Thursday in the Space Zone at the Farnborough airshow.
The event was organised by the UK space trade organisation (UKspace) and hosted by Stuart Martin, vice-chair of UKspace and Director of Space at Logica. Guests were welcomed with a speech by Stephen McPartland, Member of Parliament for Stevenage.
Lord Stephen Green, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, opened the agenda under the heading The Challenge. He emphasised the success to date in the growing UK space sector and the challenge of achieving further growth in the current economic climate.
Speeches focusing on The Ambition were made by Catherine Mealing-Jones, Director for Growth, Applications and EU Programmes at the UK Space Agency, and Magali Vaissière, ESA Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications, who highlighted the great, recent successes in the satcom market.
“The first large Public Private Partnerships of ESA,” Magali Vaissière added, “have been initiated in the UK with Avanti Communications to develop Hylas-1 and with Inmarsat to prepare Alphasat. >
“ESA has now developed the capability to set up partnerships with private partners to develop new technologies, new infrastructures and new applications in response to user demand.”
Volker Liebig, ESA Director of Earth Observation, and Keith Robson, Director Research and Enterprise Support at University of Surrey, spoke about The Knowledge and how breakthroughs in technology and science have led to many opportunities to transform knowledge into growth.
Richard Peckham, UK Business Development Director at Astrium closed the agenda with The Opportunity for space industry.