Highlight of the first day of the 𝐈𝐧-𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐈𝐒𝐀𝐌): Space Companies Driving Microgravity Innovation

The most interesting session on the first day of the ISAM conference for me was the session called 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 and the panel following the session

The panel was moderated by Alan Webb – Commercial Space Technologies Ltd. (CST) with the speakers:
· Guillaume Dieppedalle from ATMOS Space Cargo
· Adrian Radocea from Varda Space Industries
· Éanna Cristin Doyle from Space Cargo Unlimited
· Hugo Verjus from AndroMach
and Joshua Western from Space Forge who had some interesting things to say about the state of the private space sector in the UK:

Space Forge’s recent £22.6 million Series A round in May made headlines as the largest Series A secured by a private UK space company. While this is certainly an achievement worth celebrating, it also raises an important question: why is this still a record for the UK space sector? As Joshua Western noted, we should be seeing much higher Series A funding rounds becoming the norm for more new space companies.

The scale challenge facing the UK space industry is stark. Of approximately 1700 private space start-ups operating in the country, around 1600 have fewer than 10 employees. Space Forge, with about 50 team members, ranks as one of the largest private space start-up in the UK. This puts their recent facility milestone into perspective – they’ve built the first satellite manufacturing facility in Wales, a 700m² space that was previously used for manufacturing burger vans!

These insights highlight the significant barriers UK space start-ups face: securing substantial funding remains exceptionally difficult, with very few companies managing to scale beyond the earliest stages. The sector’s potential is clear, but the path from innovative idea to meaningful scale continues to be challenging for most start-ups in the space sector.