Europe is Spending Hundreds of Billions on Space. Can Glasgow’s Satellite Sector Keep Pace
What I didn’t have the sense to recognize until now is that in another guise tradition is still alive. Twenty years on and Glasgow is a European leader in the manufacturing of tiny satellites.
Many of the ones developed here are called CubeSats. Their basic building block is just 10cm x 10cm x 10cm also think something the size of a Rubik’s Cube. They are significantly smaller, cheaper and quicker to make than the large devices you might imagine when you think about satellites.
But critically, they are modular and may be stacked together and the packed with cameras, sensors communications equipment or other technologies depending on their purpose.
Their importance is belied by their size. Increasingly, data collected by all sorts of satellites is woven into our everyday lives. It helps us communicate and navigate, track ships and move products, monitor forests and crops, manage energy networks and comprehend how our climate is changing.
Such information can help Governments make decisions and respond to catastrophes. As satellites improve, space is becoming increasingly vital. The Scottish government believes that more than 20 years after the first satellite company was formed there, Glasgow builds more small satellites than anywhere else in Europe.
The wider space sector in Scotland as earned £335m in income in 2022-23, a 69% increase over five years. Excluding traditional satellite television broadcasting, it employed 2,811 workers, up 81% over the same period. But elsewhere in Europe governments are pouring money into their own satellite businesses. Could this result in employment and investment leaving Glasgow? And if so, what should the Scottish and UK governments do if anything?
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