The UK space sector needs a global stage to reach its full potential, said David Pile, the regional director for UK, Europe and MENA at Northrop Grumman Space Systems.

Speaking at the Space-Comm Expo 2022 in September, he said: “The government has been supporting the space sector. I hope that continues and the space sector continues to grow.

“We are a relatively small player on the global stage, so we have to be agile in order to grow.

“And what I’d like to see is more UK companies getting onto the global stage of the space market, the US space market is huge, and what we’re trying to do with Northrop Grumman is to enable some of our UK companies to access the US market.”

One of the largest space companies in the world

He added that Northrop Grumman was now “one of the largest space companies in the world” with extensive work across a range of projects.

“We’re doing things like the James Webb Space Telescope, we were the prime contractor for NASA,” Pile explained.

“We’re the first company to do satellite servicing at the GEO orbit, not once but twice now, and we’ve got our mission robotic vehicle build at the moment for the next generation satellite service.

“And then we continue to do things like resupplying the International Space Station, contributing to the Artemis mission, and to a whole plethora of space missions.”
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