Space Industry (Indemnities) Bill

Katrina Murray Excerpts

Friday 7th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Katrina Murray (Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch) (Lab)]

I am proud to speak in support of the Bill promoted by my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow East (John Grady) on the space industry. Like large parts of Scotland, my constituency has a burgeoning footprint in the aerospace industry—indeed, not just the industry, but the supply chain, because as my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) pointed out, Kirkintilloch and Kilsyth are very much part of my area and it is becoming one of our largest industrial sectors.

To be honest, my interest in space, like that of many in my generation, comes from a combination of sci-fi and being made to watch the launch of the space shuttle. As the opening statements of “Star Trek” told us, space is “the final frontier” and we should “boldly go where no man has gone before”. Given that what separates the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow East from mine is the M73, a major part of Scotland’s motorway and logistics infrastructure, it is probably fair to say that people do not boldly go on that journey every day, although having once spent the night on the motorway during a snowstorm, it does feel a bit like the final frontier at times.

The Bill is exceptionally technical, and the need for it is immense. The Prime Minister rightly reminded us this week of the need for Europe to be united and not rely on the United States when conflict comes to our continent. While that is true in Ukraine, it is also immediately true in space. There may be competition within the sector in Europe, and we have even heard about competition within the sector in Scotland, but that is healthy. However, we must break up the dominance of the US private sector in this space. To develop the sector at warp speed is vital.

Constituencies such as mine are crying out for advanced engineering jobs—jobs that are highly skilled and naturally well paid. Our local economies benefit from people coming from all over the country to work in those factories and warehouse units. People visit those units, as I have had the privilege to do, and they meet the range of people who work there. No longer is this the engineering I knew in my childhood—it is no longer pale, male and stale. The role of women in the industry is obvious, which takes us right back to the original series of “Star Trek” in the ’70s, where the inspirational and transformative effect that Nichelle Nichols had as Lieutenant Uhura cannot be overstated. The fact that she was hired by NASA to recruit women and people of colour for the space shuttle programme between 1997 and 2015 showed the impact that she had. Many astronauts have credited Nichols and Uhura with inspiring them to want to work in that industry. Mae Jemison was the first African-American woman in space in 1992, and a year later she appeared on the decks of the USS Enterprise as part of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.

All the devices that we love to watch on “Star Trek” are what we are using today—look at our iPads. It had the first handheld mobile devices and personal access display screens. In the “Star Trek” world, Jean-Luc Picard would say to his replicator, “Tea, Earl Grey, hot,” and it would then appear from the ship’s reserves. We are not quite at that level of sophistication yet, although the work of 3D printers and computer-aided design, and the effect of that on the advanced engineering sector, cannot be overestimated. Indeed, we are now seeing food products being printed, so maybe in the not-too-distant future Patrick Stewart himself will be able to order up a “Tea, Yorkshire, hot.”

NASA has said that, although not yet developed, the warp drive is something that could be possible in the future. Investment in our sector makes it happen—or, again in the words of Jean-Luc Picard, it makes it so.