UK Space Agency to join Department for Science, Innovation & Technology
The move will take place by April 2026 and aims to streamline support for the space industry.
The move aims to bring together strategy, policy and delivery to boost growth and cut duplication.
The UK Space Agency will keep its name and be staffed by experts from both its current incarnation and the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT).
The UK Space Agency currently runs as an executive agency for the DSIT, who have recently published a report with more than 60 recommendations from industry leaders.
Focusing on how to improve regulation for space missions, including Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) – where spacecraft work together in orbit - the Regulatory sandbox for rendezvous and proximity operations: stage 1 report looks to unlock the potential £2.7bln RPO operations can bring in by 2031.
Delivered by three firms (Astroscale, ClearSpace and D-Orbit, as well as collaboration from the Civil Aviation Atuhority), the stage 1 report delivers a key recommendation from the Space Regulatory Review – RPOs. It focuses on nascent space activities like space junk removal, in-orbit refuelling and repair services.
Stage 2 will examine RPOs in more detail.
There are no immediate changes to UK Space Agency grants or contracts, and businesses and researchers currently working with the UK Space Agency do not need to take any action.
Meanwhile, sustainability within the space sector is a hot topic.
Transmissive solar sails steer spacecraft using sunlight alone, not by reflecting it but by bending it through microscopic, refractive patterns.
A new study from the University of Nottingham looks at this new class of ultra-light, fuel-free spacecraft propulsion system.
The researchers hope this develops sustainable, low-impact technologies for future space missions, reducing reliance on onboard fuel and enabling long-duration operations in deep space.
Oxygen production in space is also energy intensive.
Current life support systems on board the International Space Station require astronauts to spin water in a centrifuge to separate oxygen and hydrogen gas bubbles from the liquid.
The weightlessness of space make this heavy and mechanically complex.
Researchers at Georgia Tech, USA and University of Warwick, UK, have created a simpler, more sustainable system using magnets. The effects of diamagnetism and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) on water were investigated. When electrolysis is applied to applied to water in space it creates a spinning motion known as MHD.
This mimics the centrifuge currently used on board spacecraft.
The article is published in nature chemistry and is Open Access.
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