The UK space sector is “thriving” despite the Covid pandemic and government strategy will help develop the sector further, according to Mark Roberts of RHEA Group.

The Belgian-based company provides engineering services within the global aerospace, security, and defence markets.

Mark Roberts, the Group’s director of space and security said one of the biggest challenges was that the sector was still awaiting government policy which would create some certainty within the UK market: “We’re still waiting, and certainly from the UK perspective, to see what the space strategy will look like. I think that’s due, hopefully, in the not too distant future. That will give us some guide as to where the UK is going.”

“My focus is primarily in the UK and so being defence and security focused, government for us is going to be a particularly important clients, understanding where government is going is going to be key. But, actually, the sector as a whole is doing great. It’s a sector that has thrived and I think I’m right in saying that it’s been not completely immune, its been largely immune to Covid – things are going well.”

He added that the rise of startup companies in new space and emerging industries would lead to a greater focus on cybersecurity: “The emerging industries that are coming, by implication they are commercial. They tend to be small, they ten to be entrepreneurial, they tend to be very agile. And I guess my view is that perhaps they need to be think little more about cybersecurity.”

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