We’re only just starting 2022, but it already looks like the year ahead is going to be a watershed in the history of UK space operations.
On February 9th, the Government announced that the UK could carry out its first vertical satellite launch by the end of the year.
Presently, the focus of the Government is on a horizontal launch, which is expected to take place this summer from Newquay, Cornwall.
The very first satellite to be launched from UK soil, Kernow Sat 1 will carry out earth monitoring activities aimed at measuring ocean plastic pollution, deforestation and coastal erosion.
Hopes are that the horizontal launch in Cornwall will be followed by a vertical launch from SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland, Scotland.
Run in collaboration with rocket company Skyrora, this mission is expected to generate an additional 16 launches a year in the next decade.
But there’s much more on the table at the moment, with the very future of UK space operations at stake in the coming months.
Following the publication of the National Space Strategy last September, on February 1st the Ministry of Defence released its long-awaited Defense Space Strategy (DSS).
Industry experts have celebrated this document for marking “the start of a new era in UK space affairs”, and understandably so.
In the late 1960s, the UK had the opportunity to launch its own Black Arrow rockets from Australian soil but the programme was cancelled following the Ministry of Defence’s decision to use America’s Scout rocket.
Half a century later, the DSS is now promising to develop space launch capability from within our national borders.
The DSS, which builds on the Protect & Defend goal outlined in the National Space Strategy, comes at a crucial time in global space activity.
Ever since NATO declared space an operational domain, governments throughout the world have rushed to establish national Space Commands, define new space mission objectives and issue contracts with private partners to deliver on them.
Presently, the UK already has over 90 registered objects in space and remains a world leader in small satellite technology applications and earth observation.
However, the UK ranks only 11th in national space funding, lagging behind the likes of Korea, Germany, China and Italy.
On top of that, Space Operations is the only sector of the UK space economy experiencing losses, with industry income declining by £75m in 2018/2019 at a negative rate of 2% per annum.
To revitalise Space Operations and increase the UK’s share in the global space economy, the next ten years will see the Government committed to investing £1.4bn in space activity, on top of the £5bn already upgrading the Skynet satellite communications system.
The DSS outlines how this money will be spent, with the following priority areas experiencing the largest shares of funding:
Secure Satellite Communication (SATCOM)
SATCOM remains the main priority for the UK given that bandwidth growth plays a vital role in developing other strategic domains.
On top of the existing £5bn investment into Skynet 6, UK Strategic Command will also be investing an additional £60m into general SATCOM capabilities.
Space Doman Awareness (SDA)
The development of SDA technology enables a greater understanding, detection and tracking of space threats.
Over the next 10 years, the Defence SDA programme will receive a boost of £85m, which is going into increasing sensor capabilities for national object classification and attribution.
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR)
This priority area promises “a series of on-orbit and ground-based demonstrators over the next four years.”
£970m is going to fund the ISTARI programme, a range of ISR technologies that will provide the UK with an architecture of on-orbit sensors and Synthetic Aperture Radar constellations.
Presented by the Minister for Defence Procurement Jeremy Quinn on February 9th, ISTARI will support global surveillance and intelligence for military operations.
A complementary programme to ISTARI is MINERVA, a £127m-worth network of satellites that are going to collect, process and disseminate data from the UK and allied space assets in support of frontline military decision-making
And then there’s PROMETHEUS 2, the first satellites directly owned by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
Comparable to the size of a shoebox (30cm x 20cm x 10cm), the two PROMETHEUS 2 CubeSats will provide a test platform for GPS monitoring.
The PROMETHEUS 2 satellites are set for launch from Dstl’s site near Portsmouth by the end of 2022.
An average of £140m per year might strike some observers as a modest investment to deliver such a complex Defence Space Portfolio. However, the real challenge here is delivery.
Firstly, there’s the long-standing issue of civil-military integration. The opportunity has finally arisen for the UK to develop a single Space Acquisition & Procurement capability system, which should be responsible for delivering both civil and military programmes.
To achieve acquisition agility, it is also necessary that the UK develop a more diversified and dynamic space industry, thinking strategically to counteract monopolistic tendencies and promote healthy competition in the market.
Despite the limited budget made available by the DSS and the strict timetable to deliver on it, the UK has the opportunity to achieve proper integration of space delivery in the next ten years.
The Ministry of Defence is expected to share more details about the DSS at upcoming industry events like the Defence Space Conference in May, when information on strategic delivery will probably be discussed by civil and government stakeholders.
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Image Credit: Virgin Orbit