Brexit news: UK space sector will ‘get on with it’ and thrive, Galileo or not

However, Professor Martin Barstow, chairman of the UK Space Conference 2019, has admitted the possibility of the UK losing access to the Galileo and Copernicus satellite systems is “worrisome”.  And he stressed the uncertainty was proving a drag on confidence within the space sector, just as it was for other businesses, especially since the Supreme Court’s decision to declare Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament unlawful.  Prof Barstow, the former President of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Professor of Astrophysics and Space Science at the University of Leicester, said: “My guess is in the longer term we’ll just get on with it and we’ll deliver the best we can deliver. But it will require investment.

My guess is in the longer term we’ll just get on with it and we’ll deliver the best we can deliver

Martin Barstow

“Brexit has a number of facets for space.

“In some ways it doesn’t matter because we are part of ESA, which is not the European Union, and actually a lot of the things we need to do in the space sector to deliver growth in the space economy have to happen anyway.

“But then there are things that are our particular focus which are worrisome, like losing access to Galileo, losing access to Copernicus, that are things that actually underpin a lot of our space activity and if you have to replace those that’s costly in terms of what the expenditure might have to do.”

The Galileo Satellite System is an EU-owned rival to the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS).

Last year, the EU confirmed the UK would be excluded from some aspects of it after Brexit, despite the UK estimated to have invested more than £1billion into the project and having been instrumental in developing much of the technology involved, with European Space Agency chief Jan Woerner among those voicing concern at the prospect.

In addition the UK currently participates in the Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation programme, which provides huge amounts of data related to the atmosphere, sea,land, climate, emergency and security – and access to this too is jeopardised by Brexit.

Former Prime Minister Theresa May announced a £92million feasibility study last year to look at the possibility of developing a rival to Galileo but Prof Barstow sounded a note of caution.

He said: “We have the technology and the capability to do it but do we have the capacity to deliver the things that we need to deliver is the question?

“The money maybe is okay – you are talking about a multi-billion project but we spend multi-billions on many things.

“HS2 is an example of something which costs far more than replacing Galileo.

“So spending the money is possible. What we don’t have is the capability of building satellites that are the right size and the right volume at an appropriate rate to actually create that capability in the short term. And I think that’s the real challenge.”

Both Galileo and Copernicus are actually satellite constellations – in other words a group of satellites working in concert.

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Mr Barstow explained: “Now we need to develop the capability for all kinds of reasons – satellite constellations are the future of space, the future of the global space economy, so actually as a country we need to work out to build constellations of satellites, we need to have to capability of building them, which we don’t currently have, and launching them, which we don’t currently have either.

“But we’re working on both those aspects. So in a sense it’s a commercial opportunity which has relevance to things.

“HS2 is an example of something which costs far more than replacing Galileo.

“So spending the money is possible. What we don’t have is the capability of building satellites that are the right size and the right volume at an appropriate rate to actually create that capability in the short term. And I think that’s the real challenge.”

Both Galileo and Copernicus are actually satellite constellations – in other words a group of satellites working in concert.

Mr Barstow explained: “Now we need to develop the capability for all kinds of reasons – satellite constellations are the future of space, the future of the global space economy, so actually as a country we need to work out to build constellations of satellites, we need to have to capability of building them, which we don’t currently have, and launching them, which we don’t currently have either.

“But we’re working on both those aspects. So in a sense it’s a commercial opportunity which has relevance to things.

“But it needs to happen whether Galileo is something we participate in or not.

“It’s the uncertainty – we need to solve the problem.

“Whether we are in or out, we need to know that we’re going to buy into Galileo, that we’re going to be participating in future programmes with Copernicus and we just don’t know that at the moment.”

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