The UK was in the spotlight last week as the UK Space Conference took place in Manchester. Always an important date in the space calendar, this year was no exception with astronauts, enthusiasts, space tech experts, engineers, researchers and many more converging on the city for the biennial event. The two-day conference was part of a busy week in the UK for ESA’s Director General Josef Aschbacher, who also celebrated the tenth birthday of ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT) on Tuesday.
ESA’s ECSAT site is one of ESA’s best kept secrets. Named after Roy Gibson BEM, the first Director General of ESA, and based at Harwell in Oxfordshire, it is small but perfectly formed and is expanding rapidly. It sits at the gateway of the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, a world-leading centre of excellence for innovation and technology, and with the UK driving commercialisation in the space sector, it is no coincidence that it is the home of ESA’s largest commercial programme, Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS).
The UK Space Agency is the biggest investor in BASS, supporting more than 90 completed projects to date with many more ongoing across multiple sectors, driven by companies from all corners of the UK. In total, ESA BASS has invested 64 million euros in the UK, matched by company co-funding to total nearly 130 million euros in UK business since 2010. These investments have created thousands of jobs (80% of those in the UK) and projected cumulated sales over three years total more than 960 million euros. From monitoring invasive aquatic plants in freshwater bodies (Oxford), to helping smallholders around the world tap into lucrative supply chains for coffee, cocoa and other commodities (Scotland), developing groundbreaking portable 3D scanning equipment for early fracture detection (Oxford), and providing remote management of high value assets and infrastructure (Cornwall), businesses across the UK are generating pioneering solutions using space-based technologies to improve life on Earth.
Returning to Manchester, ESA had a large presence at the heart of the conference and colleagues from BASS, Earth observation and telecommunications had many fruitful conversations about how the application of space-based technologies is playing an increasingly vital role in solving some of Earth’s most pressing issues, especially around sustainability and the green transition. ESA BASS’ presence extended beyond the ESA pavilion, with ESA ambassadors and project companies exhibiting and visiting individually and as part of the growing space clusters in the UK regions.
In his keynote speech at the conference, Josef Aschbacher reiterated the significance of the UK in the space sector and outlined the potential for space to supercharge the UK’s economy.
“ESA will work with Member States, the European Commission, and international partners to harness space for the betterment of life on Earth” said Mr Aschbacher. “The decisions made at the ESA Council Meeting in November will ensure a more secure and prosperous future for all Europeans, and the UK and its industry will play a significant role in this endeavour. The relationship between ESA and the UK is productive, mutually beneficial, and strategically important.”
With private investment in space continuing to soar, last year European space ventures raised over 1.5 billion euro, marking a 56% increase compared to 2023. In 2024, global private investment in space grew by 20%—to 7 billion euros—compared to 2023. Over the past five years, Europe's share of global private investment in space has grown significantly, from 3% in 2019 to 22% in 2024. However, public investment in space is falling behind. In 2024, Europe captured just 10% of the global public space budget, a decrease of 5% since 2019.
Speaking from Manchester at the UK Space Conference, Nick Appleyard, Head of ESA BASS, said “The UK’s commitment to supporting businesses is never better illustrated than at these events, as we see how they are accessing space technologies to develop innovative products that protect our planet. It has been wonderful to see so many of the companies BASS have supported here this week and to hear their plans for expansion and scale.”
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