UK Reveals New 5-Year Industrial Plan for Space

The UK Government has revealed its new roadmap for supporting investment, advancement and collaboration in the UK’s growing space industry. This new industrial plan for space builds on the existing National Space Strategy.

UK Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, Andrew Griffith, revealed the details of the government’s new Space Industrial Plan at the 2024 Space-Comm Expo in Farnborough on Thursday.

“Move further and faster”

Griffith said the new roadmap builds on the foundations of the National Space Strategy, first published in 2021, and outlines the UK’s entrance into the “thrust phase” of space industry advancement.

“Now, in a more competitive economy, we’ve got to move further and move faster and do more if we are to stay ahead of the curve… and that means we’ve got to rethink the relationship between government and industry. And that is what this space industrial plan goes towards doing,” Griffith said.

“We’ve seen the space sector and the related space services sector grow very significantly since 2010,” he said. “[and] we want to work differently in a more mature way with the sector, moving from project-by-project interaction, into something that looks a little bit more like a long-term strategic partnership.

“Our plan looks up to 2030, with a set of clear missions and actions for government and industry to achieve together.”

Here’s the UK’s industrial plan for space

Under the plan, the UK’s focused aims in space through to 2030 include:

• to deliver on the first national space capability goals;
• to develop clear, strategic and sequenced plans to deliver all 22 space capability goals;
• to shape government interventions to support the domestic sector in delivering capability goals;
• and to refine the Defence Highly Assured Technical Areas and work collaboratively to update industry as the technology evolves.

“Thank you for this platform to set out our vision of a prosperous and sustainable UK Space Industry,” Griffith added. “Personally, I need no persuading on the importance and benefits of the UK space sector.”

Griffiths also announced an upcoming report, to be published in the coming months, which will set out a similar government-backed roadmap on addressing the skills gap in space. However, he also called on the industry to be proactive in its recruitment techniques.

“Today’s space industrial plan recognizes that a growing, strong and sustainable pipeline of talent requires collaboration between academics, researchers, government and industry,” he said. However, he also challenged the commercial sector: “But we also lay down the gauntlet to industry to raise its own game.”