The £20 million Westcott Space Hub has officially opened in Buckinghamshire, providing state-of-the-art facilities to support the growth of space businesses and creating up to 300 jobs.
Westcott Space Hub is led by URA Thrusters in partnership with Patrizia Hanover Property Unit Trust, Skyports Drone Services, Westcott Shared Facilities Ltd and Buckinghamshire Council to provide state-of-the-art test facilities, training space and commercial workspace for the UK’s growing space sector.
Located at Westcott Venture Park, which has a history of more than 50 years as a rocket engine testing site, the hub will address a critical gap in Buckinghamshire’s research and development infrastructure.
Funded by £5.8 million from the UK Space Agency, the facility will support collaboration between small and medium-sized businesses, key industry players, academia and other stakeholders in the local space ecosystem.
Westcott Space Hub boasts world-class facilities
Westcott Space Hub is one of the few campuses in the world that offers world-class assembly, integration and testing facilities for hire.
This includes:
42,000 square feet of flexible commercial space with offices, labs and workshops, 33% already leased. A 10,000-square-foot training facility with a 150-seat auditorium, 15 classrooms, and a fully equipped workshop. The 10,000 sq ft shared facility, which includes a clean room, mechanical environmental test facility and propulsion test facility, includes a vacuum chamber for testing electric propulsion engines and is the only facility of its type in the UK and one of the largest in the world.
“The Westcott Space Hub, in conjunction with our historic existing test site at Westcott, makes us one of the few companies in the world with full integration, manufacturing and in-vacuum testing capabilities for both chemical and electric thrusters,” explained Alberto Garbayo, CEO of URA Thrusters.
Creating hundreds of jobs across the UK space industry
The project, which began in December 2023, is being delivered with £15m of match funding and demonstrates the great private sector confidence in the UK space industry.
The Westcott Space Hub is expected to create approximately 100 direct jobs and 200 roles within the broader supply chain over the next few years.
Space Secretary Liz Lloyd commented: “This investment is about more than infrastructure. It’s about creating skilled jobs, attracting private investment and ensuring the next generation of space technology is designed, built and tested right here in the UK.”
Wescot Space Hub serves the UK’s growing community
URA Thrusters, which develops sustainable propulsion solutions for spacecraft, has expanded into one of the hub’s main buildings, giving other companies access to world-class test and development facilities without having to move overseas.
Westcott Venture Park already has an established and growing community of innovative companies focused on space propulsion, autonomous systems, robotics, and communications. It is also home to the National Space Propulsion Test Facility (NSPTF), which is also funded by the UK Space Agency.
The UK Space Agency’s Space Cluster Infrastructure Fund (SCIF) has awarded more than £45.6 million to 13 projects since its launch in 2023.
This funding will be complemented by over £43.8m of match funding from the sector, taking total private/public investment in space research and development infrastructure to £89.6m.
In addition, SCIF funding strengthens the organization’s ability to attract investment, helping to secure venture capital, private equity and follow-on public funding, and has already facilitated more than £50m of additional investment.
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