Space a growing money spinner for British industry: report

Britain's space industry is worth almost 17.5 billion U.S. dollars a year to the national economy, a new survey revealed Thursday.

The government-backed UK space industry said its latest survey, carried out every two years, shows that the sector has continued to grow strongly.

The sector in Britain accounts for 6.5 percent of the global space economy, with a government target to reach 10 percent within 15 years.

Produced by consultancy firm London Economics, the report said that space continues to be a key infrastructure for Britain, supporting more than 318 billion U.S. dollars worth of output across the economy with telecommunications, navigation, earth observation and meteorology services.

The study shows the sector is now estimated to directly employ over 38,500 people, with a strategic ambition to grow the number employed by 2030 to 120,000. The space sector also currently supports a further 114,000 jobs in the supply chain.

"With output per worker almost three times the UK average, the sector is highly productive and has a workforce that is among the most highly skilled in the economy, with three in four employees holding at least a primary degree," says the report.

Exports, worth over 6.4 billion U.S. dollars in the past year, are an important source of income for the space sector, accounting for over a third of revenues last year. Half of the exports from Britain's space sector are to mainland Europe, the report stated.

The space industry covers commercial organizations that earn money from the manufacture, launch and operation of satellites and spacecraft, or utilize data and signals from satellites to universities and research institutes.

More than 40 percent of the space sector is concentrated in London and south east England, the study said. Endit