{"id":14719,"date":"2017-04-15T20:13:31","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T12:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/brexit-raises-question-mark-over-uks-role-in-some-european-space-projects\/"},"modified":"2017-04-15T20:13:31","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T12:13:31","slug":"brexit-raises-question-mark-over-uks-role-in-some-european-space-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/brexit-raises-question-mark-over-uks-role-in-some-european-space-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit raises question mark over UK\u2019s role in some European space projects"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SSTL engineers working in Guildford, England, test a navigation payload for Europe\u2019s Galileo program. Credit: SSTL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The future participation of major segments of Britain\u2019s space industry in Europe\u2019s Galileo navigation system and Copernicus environmental network, two multibillion-dollar flagship programs with dozens of satellites, is sure to be a significant part of negotiations as the UK withdraws from the European Union, according to a member of the European Commission.<\/p>\n

European officials want to rely on producers within the European Union for the block\u2019s major programs, according to El\u017cbieta Bie\u0144kowska, the European Commission\u2019s senior space official.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s departure from the EU could leave some of the country\u2019s space companies locked out of the Galileo and Copernicus programs, officials said.<\/p>\n

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., based in Guildford, England, built 22 navigation payloads for Europe\u2019s Galileo navigation fleet, an analog to the U.S. military\u2019s Global Positioning System. Airbus Defense and Space\u2019s Portsmouth site provided four more navigation payloads, ensuring that at least 26 of the Galileo system\u2019s initial 30-satellite constellation will carry British-built navigation instrumentation.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s future role in space projects managed by the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, is \u201cone chapter of the negotiations that will be really important for the UK, from their perspective, because they have quite a powerful industry and they participate in our programs,\u201d Bie\u0144kowska said in an interview with Spaceflight Now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge question mark about this period of negotiations,\u201d said Bie\u0144kowska, the European Commissioner responsible for industry, the internal market and entrepreneurship. \u201cHow will it look in the end? This will be one of the most important chapters because they definitely want to stay in the framework of our programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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El\u017cbieta Bie\u0144kowska, the European Commissioner\u2019s lead commissioner for industry, the internal market and entrepreneurship, a portfolio that includes responsibility for space programs. Credit: Space Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jan Woerner, ESA\u2019s director general, said British companies will still be eligible to participate in the agency\u2019s projects. While the UK is leaving the EU, Britain\u2019s financial contributions to ESA have increased in recent years, earning industrial contracts to build the spacecraft for the joint U.S.-European Solar Orbiter mission and the ExoMars rover.<\/p>\n

The Financial Times reported earlier this week that the European Commission is demanding the right to cancel existing contracts without penalty if a supplier is no longer based in an EU member state. The newspaper also reported the commission is insisting any supplier booted from a EU-managed program should repay the cost of finding a replacement contractor.<\/p>\n

SSTL delivered the final Galileo navigation payload under its current contract last year, but Bie\u0144kowska said the European Commission and ESA, which acts as a technical partner and procurement agent for the Galileo program, will buy eight more satellites this year to ensure the constellation is completed by 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to have 30 satellites by 2020, so there\u2019s not much time, Bie\u0144kowska said.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s OHB built the majority of the Galileo satellites ordered and launched to date in an industrial partnership with Britain\u2019s SSTL.<\/p>\n

The contract for the next eight Galileo satellites was supposed to be signed last year, and Brexit negotiations may be partially responsible for delaying the award.<\/p>\n

The Financial Times said the European Commission presented the new contract stipulations as a condition for winning work on the eight new Galileo satellites, an award that could be worth up to \u00a3400 million, or $500 million, to British industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clause now threatens to spur a flight of high-tech space companies from the UK, jeopardizing the British government\u2019s ambition to take 10 percent of the \u00a3400 billion ($500 billion) a year global space market,\u201d the Financial Times said.<\/p>\n

If the European Commission maintains the negotiating stance reported by the Financial Times, Galileo managers will have to look for a new supplier for the satellites\u2019 navigation payloads.<\/p>\n

\u201cExecutives from two space companies said they were considering whether to relocate their UK activities to EU member states, or to choose different partners in a bid to ensure eligibility for future procurement,\u201d the Financial Times reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to rely on European producers,\u201d Bie\u0144kowska told Spaceflight Now.<\/p>\n

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The complete Galileo constellation will consist of 24 satellites along three orbital planes, plus two spare satellites per orbit. Credit: ESA-P. Carril<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Britain\u2019s industrial role in the European Commission\u2019s Copernicus program, which will become the world\u2019s largest fleet of environmental satellites, is more limited. But Airbus Defense and Space\u2019s facility in Stevenage, England, is responsible for assembling one of the satellites set for launch later this year, and numerous British companies provide instruments and components on many of the Copernicus program\u2019s polar-orbiting Sentinel spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Once the UK is no longer an EU member state, a milestone expected in 2019, the British government must sign a new security accord with the multinational block to access the Galileo system\u2019s encrypted services and receive the satellites\u2019 most precise positioning data. The Galileo network will broadcast open navigation signals to provide positioning data to global users that is more accurate than those offered by the U.S. Air Force\u2019s GPS satellites, according to program officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the UK government has so far failed to make any clear statement of intent or even a wish to remain in these important EU space programs, it is not surprising that the EU is cautious about UK industry participation,\u201d Richard Peckham, chair of the trade association UKspace, told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

There are 18 Galileo navigation satellites currently in orbit more than 14,000 miles (23,000 kilometers) above Earth. The launch of the next four Galileo spacecraft on an Ariane 5 rocket has been delayed to at least November as engineers study clock failures on several of the platforms already in space.<\/p>\n

The clocks are critical to provide precise positioning data to Galileo\u2019s users, ensuring accurate measurements of the distance between the navigation receiver on the ground and the spacecraft in orbit.<\/p>\n

The navigation network works by triangulating a user\u2019s position on the ground by computing the distance between the receiver and multiple satellites.<\/p>\n

The signals transmitted by each Galileo satellite include the time they were sent and the orbital position of the spacecraft. Receivers in mobile phones, cars, airplanes and ships can derive their location based on that information.<\/p>\n

Another major segment of the European space industry, launchers, is not directly funded by the EU, but Bie\u0144kowska said the European Commission has committed to become an anchor customer for the new Vega-C and Ariane 6 rockets in development for debut flights in 2019 and 2020, respectively.<\/p>\n

Managed in a cost-sharing public-private partnership between ESA and industry, the new launchers will be cheaper and more capable than Europe\u2019s existing Ariane 5 and Vega boosters. While European officials say the upgraded rockets will get a steady stream of contracts to launch government-backed scientific, navigation, Earth observation and military missions, their place in the commercial launch market will be pressured by SpaceX\u2019s partially-reusable Falcon 9 booster and other vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the launchers we want to develop, and we will use all of our tools, including procurement, to support them,\u201d Bie\u0144kowska told Spaceflight Now on April 5 after a speech at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

In her prepared remarks, Bie\u0144kowska endorsed Europe\u2019s launch industry, saying that Europe\u2019s autonomous access to space is a cornerstone of the continent\u2019s security and economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe observe very closely the ongoing revolution in the launcher market, especially here in the United States, around the principle of reusability,\u201d Bie\u0144kowska said. \u201cEurope\u2019s answer is the development of the next-generation of cost-effective reliable and competitive European launchers \u2014 Ariane 6 and Vega-C. We will aggregate our institutional launches to support those two launchers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SSTL engineers working in Guildford, England, test a navigation payload for Europe\u2019s Galileo program. Credit: SSTL The future participation of major segments of Britain\u2019s space industry in Europe\u2019s Galileo navigation system and Copernicus environmental network, two multibillion-dollar flagship programs with dozens of satellites, is sure to be a significant part of negotiations as the UK […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3336,1657,260,1805,159,3343,1060,831],"class_list":["post-14719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-33rd-space-symposium","tag-airbus-defense-and-space","tag-ariane-6","tag-copernicus","tag-earth-observation","tag-elzbieta-bienkowska","tag-european-commission","tag-european-space-agency"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14719"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}