There’s less than a month to go until Venturefest South brings together the region’s brightest minds and big thinkers for its #VFS23: Festival of Innovation - and Space South Central will be there.

Skills gaps, shortages and recruitment challenges are the biggest threats to South Central England’s £3 billion space sector, according to new research.

Each month, Space South Central aims to bring together a curated list of the latest and best funding opportunities for businesses working in the space sector across the South East.

A team from Space South Central partners, the University of Southampton, has built a fully functioning replica of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover, to demonstrate how space technology can be lifesaving on Earth.

Each month, Space South Central aims to bring together a curated list of the latest and best funding opportunities for businesses working in the space sector across the South East.

Introducing our new International Partnerships Manager, Toby Marchant. Although based at the University of Surrey, one of the cluster’s founding partners, Toby’s role will take him all over the region and beyond - he already has his first international visit lined up to support the Space South Central collaboration with Singapore, which recently won UK Space Agency funding.

The UK’s largest regional space cluster, Space South Central, has won funding from the UK Space Agency’s International Bilateral Fund (IBF) to develop a new Earth observation mission to help Singapore manage climate change.

International space projects from across the Space South Central region have won funding from the UK Space Agency (UKSA) in the first phase of its £20 million International Bilateral Fund (IBF), aimed at boosting research and investment in new technologies through worldwide collaborations.

On 19 July 2023, the government published The National Space Strategy in Action (NSSiA), reporting on the progress and priorities of the original National Space Strategy (NSS) nearly two years on from its launch.

Each month, Space South Central aims to bring together a curated list of the latest and best funding opportunities for businesses working in the space sector across the South East.

One of the UK’s top sites for space sector career information and recruitment, SpaceCareers.uk, has relaunched after a year of redevelopment, offering improved resources for both candidates and employers.

For International Moon Day, Space South Central interviewed members of the Lunar Pathfinder project from SSTL.

Each month, Space South Central aims to bring together a curated list of the latest and best funding opportunities for businesses working in the space sector across the South East.

Saturday 1 July saw the successful launch of ESA’s Euclid spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, starting an ambitious six-year mission to explore the composition and evolution of the dark Universe. 

Skills and innovation were the focus for Minister of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, George Freeman, as he met with Space South Central businesses and academics in Guildford on Thursday (22 June 2023).

Satellite imagery released by Surrey-based geospatial analytics company, Alcis, shows a 99% reduction in poppy cultivation in Helmand Province, which previously produced more than 50% of Afghanistan’s opium.

Each month, Space South Central aims to bring together a curated list of the latest and best funding opportunities for businesses working in the space sector across the South East.

A unique new mission design service at the University of Portsmouth - one of Space South Central’s partner institutions - has won £100k funding from the UK Space Agency (UKSA) for its set-up phase.

Staff from one of Space South Central’s founding members, the University of Portsmouth, joined the UK Space Agency’s new Space for Everyone Tour, which launched in Southampton on Thursday 1 June.