Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of LaunchUK in facilitating a small satellite launch.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Government is committed to making the UK a European leader in small satellite launches and delivering a launch capability that brings benefits to communities and organisations across the UK.
We have made significant progress towards this goal. The UK is the only European country with multiple spaceports licensed for orbital launches, and Spaceport Cornwall conducted the first orbital launch from European soil in 2023. Although the satellites carried onboard were not successfully placed into orbit due to an anomaly, the launch showed that the UK is capable of launching satellites into space.
The next UK launches are planned from SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland, which received its launch licence last year. Several domestic and foreign launch operators are targeting orbital launches from SaxaVord from this year.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of progress towards the CLEAR UK Space Agency Mission de-orbiting two satellites by 2026.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The ‘CLEAR’ debris removal mission, led by ClearSpace UK, passed its Preliminary Design Review in April 2024. Since then, through phase two of the UK Space Agency’s active debris removal (ADR) programme, CLEAR has undergone £2,350,000 of derisking activities to enhance the technology readiness levels of critical mission systems and refine mission costs.
CLEAR’s progress is in line with UK Space Agency (UKSA) mission planning. Subject to the Spending Review outcome, UKSA is developing the business case for phase three of the ADR programme which, if successful, will be published for tender in mid-2025 and awarded to one supplier for mission launch in 2028.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of progress toward the Ten Point Plan in the National Space Strategy.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government outlined progress toward the Ten Point Plan in the National Space Strategy in Action - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-space-strategy-in-action/national-space-strategy-in-action.
In addition, a regular Monitoring and Insights workstream is underway, chaired by DSIT, with attendance from the UK Space Agency, the Department of Business and Trade, and the Ministry of Defence, to track progress of the delivery of the National Space Strategy.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the potential economic impact of the UK’s commercial spaceflight programme on the South West of England.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The South West of England is an important part of the UK's spaceflight ecosystem, being home to the UK's first licensed and operational spaceport, Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay. The establishment of the spaceport has been instrumental in catalysing the growth of the Cornwall Space Cluster, which has created high-skilled jobs and facilitated collaboration and innovation in the UK’s space ecosystem.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to mitigate the risks posed by space debris to UK (a) satellites and (b) other space assets.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government is committed to mitigating the risk from space debris through arange of actions, including regulatory reform, international collaboration on standards and best practice, and developing capabilities to prevent, track or remove space debris. The government recently awarded £4.7 million to Astroscale and ClearSpace to understand the risks and costs of an active debris removal mission. The UK also launched the National Space Operations Centre in May 2024, combining civil and military space domain awareness and protection capabilities. This includes uncontrolled re-entry early warning, fragmentation monitoring, in-space collision avoidance protection services and support to HMG and international partners.