The UK is “very well placed” to capture a “huge part” of the commercial space market, British astronaut Tim Peake has said.

Speaking at the Farnborough International Airshow, he said the industry was moving at a “fast pace” and that with “brilliant” engineers and scientists, the country was poised to become an important destination for space research and development.

10% market share

Peake, a former Apache pilot, flight instructor and test pilot, who is now a European Space Agency astronaut, said: “The challenges are, which programmes are we going to invest in the short term in order to grow our space economy for the medium and the long term?

“We want to have a 10 per cent share of the space market by 2030, and we have some amazing innovative companies.”

Investment and growth

He added: “It’s a case of how do we support them? How do we get the investment they need? How do we grow the skills workforce so that they can actually grow and thrive in the future? And what does the opportunity for the UK look like when it comes to the space sector?

“Because things are moving at a fast pace. We have some brilliant engineers, brilliant scientists here in the UK. And we are very, very well placed to capture a huge part of this commercial space market.”
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