UK Space Agency
The United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) is an executive agency of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the United Kingdom's civil space programme. It was established on 1 April 2010 to replace the British National Space Centre (BNSC) and took over responsibility for government policy and key budgets for space exploration;[3][4] it represents the United Kingdom in all negotiations on space matters.[5][6] The Agency "[brings] together all UK civil space activities under one single management".[3] It is based at the former BNSC headquarters in Swindon, Wiltshire.[5][7][8]
Agency overview
UKSA
1 April 2010
United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories
Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wiltshire
51°34′00.6″N 1°47′6″W / 51.566833°N 1.78500°W
Paul Bate
Ian Annett[1]
Key people[edit]
The agency's chief executive since September 2021 is Dr Paul Bate, a civil servant with a PhD in particle physics.[23] Graham Turnock, a physicist who had previously worked at HM Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, was the chief executive from March 2017[24][25] until the end of his four-year term in 2021.[26][27] Libby Jackson is the agency's Head of Space Exploration[28] and Anu Ojha is the director of Championing Space.[29]
Proposed sites for spaceports, and the companies associated with them, are as follows:
Other UK bodies[edit]
RAL Space, based at STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, carries out space research and technology development.
The Space Academic Network provides a voice for the academic research community.[34]
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, headquartered at Porton Down, Wiltshire, began a five-year programme of defence-related space research in 2017.[35]
