A report from the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee says that more needs to be done to exploit the UK’s already ‘buoyant’ satellite and space sector. As a result, the committee has recommended that the Government establish a national space programme.

The Government plans to grow the UK’s share of the global space market from 6.5% to 10% by 2030. It is estimated that this would lead to a UK space sector with an annual turnover of £40 billion and up to 100,000 skilled jobs.

However, the Committee’s report — Satellites and Space — warns that, despite its “impressive track record”, the UK space sector is “too inward-looking” and has been “unduly modest” about its achievements. This has led to a “general lack of awareness of the well-established sector and the ways in which satellite data can be used by bodies outside the traditional space sector”.

The report says that the Government and local authorities should do more to stimulate awareness and growth by “applying space-enabled services to help achieve effective and efficient policy delivery”.

It highlights the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as a “trail-blazer” for using satellite data to assist with flood modelling and flood response, but says that other departments are lagging behind.

Committee chairman Nicola Blackwood said: “For the last six months, attention has rightly been focused on Major Tim Peake and Britain’s role in human space flight.

“However, it is important to remember that our space and satellite SMEs also need to access space, usually via unmanned missions, in order to test the innovative products that they have been developing — like the small satellites used to observe the changing biology of the oceans. Without this ‘flight heritage’, space SMEs struggle to get their ideas out of the lab and successfully commercialised.”

She added: “The UK has only taken small steps towards launching a national space programme that would enable our innovative space and satellite industries to get the ‘flight heritage’ they need. Now is the time to take a confident leap towards that goal and build on the foundations of the National Space Technology Programme.”