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The comments came from Andrew Stroomer, director of space systems at the company’s Stevenage site, after the successful launch of the Sentinel-5P, a pollution-monitoring satellite built there.
Representatives from government, Airbus and other organisations remotely watched the launch of the European Commission-European Space Agency (ESA) satellite at the UK Space Agency in Westminster. The orbiter – which contacted ground control 93 minutes after take-off – will use the Dutch-designed Tropomi instrument to make 20m daily observations around the entire globe, mapping gases such as methane, carbon monoxide, ozone and aerosols.
Amid celebrations of international collaboration and UK industrial expertise, Brexit was never far from conversation at the Westminster event. Although much of the UK space sector is booming – the satellite industry is particularly successful internationally, with a quarter of all telecoms satellites built by UK company Astrium and several firms specialising in smaller orbiters – trade body UKspace reportedly wrote to science minister Jo Johnson earlier this year warning that billions of pounds are at risk if British companies cannot continue to supply the EU-funded Galileo satellite programme.
However, following the Sentinel-5P launch Stroomer said Airbus’ Stevenage manufacturing would be unchanged post-Brexit thanks to the ESA’s openness to non-EU countries. “All of the exciting things we do at Stevenage – the Mars Rover, solar orbiter, the mission that we are looking at today, the Sentinel-5 Precursor – they are ESA projects and there shouldn’t be any changes to what we do there,” he said.
Another concern is the potential for the skills gap to widen if EU workers leave the country or are denied entry. The Stevenage workforce of 1,200 is “very international,” said Stroomer, although he said the company is working closely with the government to “stabilise” the situation. “We have quite a few UK people abroad and everybody wants to keep that situation as it is in Europe and the UK.”
UKspace reportedly wrote to Johnson over fears that EU-based companies will win vital supply contracts for the €10bn Galileo programme, a competitor to US-owned GPS navigation satellites, instead of them going to British competitors. Stroomer said Airbus is “looking to the government” over a way forward on Galileo and the environment-monitoring Copernicus programme, of which Sentinel-5P is a part.
Speaking to PE before the Sentinel-5P launch, Johnson said he was meeting companies regularly to discuss concerns during Brexit, and said he wanted “to ensure they remain in a position to engage closely with programmes such as Copernicus, Galileo and Sea Surface Temperature after we’ve left”.
The UK is not leaving the ESA and recently increased its funding of the agency, he said. The national contribution to the 2017 budget was €300m – 7.9% of the total amount – as well as a reported €300m funnelled through the EU.
Johnson said the Sentinel-5P launch is “a real example of the extraordinary capabilities of our UK space sector companies, and it’s a great example of European collaboration”.
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