SCOTLAND'S rapidly growing space sector has helped bring a multi-billion pound boost to the economy.
New figures for the Aerospace, Defence and Space sectors show they are worth £6.4bn to the Scottish purse, with the space sector making the largest single contribution.
ADS, the trade association for the industries in Scotland and the rest of the UK, released the findings in its first new industry guide for Scotland, setting out the strength of the three sectors, and detailing the organisation’s priorities for the year ahead in 2018.
The ADS Scotland 2017 Industry Facts and Figures guide shows the space sector is now the largest of the three industries in Scotland with an annual turnover of £2.5bn, compared to £2bn for aerospace and £1.9bn for defence.
It found defence is the biggest employer, with 11,400 people working in the sector, with the space sector having 7,200 employees in Scotland, and aerospace 7,700, taking the total across ADS’ industries to more than 26,000 employees.
It added each sector invests in training and developing a highly skilled workforce for the future, there are more than 800 apprentices employed across the three sectors.
Scotland builds more space satellites that any other country in Europe, with the burgeoning Glasgow-centred sector counting for almost one-in-five of UK space industry jobs, with many more due to be created in the new year.
One such firm is Alba Orbital which builds miniature satellites known as PocketQubes in an office building in Glasgow’s Gorbals.
Another, Spire Global designs, builds and tests nanosatellites at Glasgow’s Sky Park office complex and Nick Allain, its director of brand at the US company, said it had grown significantly in the last two years.
US-based Orbital Micro Systems is to manufacture satellites at its hardware facility in Glasgow from January, the first of which is due for launch in late 2018.
And Clyde Space designed and built Scotland’s first space satellite UKube-1, which was launched in Kazakhstan in 2014.
Key priorities for ADS in the year ahead include promoting global investment and export opportunities for its sectors, and working with industry to make sure Scottish businesses are prepared and well placed to succeed after Brexit.
ADS Chief Executive Paul Everitt said: "Our industries are making a great contribution to prosperity in communities across Scotland, providing thousands of jobs in these high value manufacturing sectors.
“All three sectors are highly productive, innovative and generating long-term growth.
"The rapid expansion of the space sector shows the new opportunities that are being developed by innovative companies here in Scotland."
The Westminster Government has also made £50 million available to enable new satellite launch services and low gravity space flights from UK spaceports.
Chris Noble, UK Space Agency spokesman, said that "funding will be used to invest in the first launches from the UK and to deliver a programme of work to realise benefits across the country".
Sites in Sutherland, Argyll, and Ayrshire are proposed as possible locations, and bidders have each asked for £10m with successful applicants to be announced in March.
This follows the announcement earlier this year from the UK Space Agency for a call for industry proposals to establish a launch capability in the UK, which received 26 proposals.
An independent advisory panel has recommended a number of proposals for further consideration, and funding will be allocated by spring.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel