The UK Space Agency has announced seven new space projects in a two-year £32 million programme that will see UK companies working with international partners to develop satellite technology in emerging economies.

The new projects, funded through the International Partnerships Space Programme (IPSP), will demonstrate how UK satellite and space technology can provide benefits to countries that do not currently have such capabilities.

David Parker, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “These new international partnerships not only illustrate the breadth of UK expertise in space technology but prove that international collaboration can provide many new business opportunities for our highly skilled space companies, while supporting vital areas of space activity such as Earth observation and telecommunications.

"By sharing our expertise in space technology, we can also share the considerable economic and social benefits that it provides.”

The seven new projects include two supplied by Avanti Communications (one being a satellite-based air navigation project in Africa), a telecommunications service via a constellation of low-cost CubeSat satellites from Clyde Space and American company Outernet, and a project in which global satellite network operator Inmarsat will strengthen the satellite-based digital capabilities required to accelerate economic growth in Africa.

Another project will see Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd and Ghalam LLP in Kazakhstan working together to equip the KazSTSat small satellite mission; while another collaborative development — that of radiometer components for meteorological instruments — will see Teratech Components Ltd (a spin-out of the Science & Technology Facilities Council and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) partner CAST Xi’an, a Chinese supplier of spacecraft instrumentation.