Starmer government consolidates the UK Space Agency into larger agency
Soon to be gone, and likely forgotten
The Starmer Labor government in the United Kingdom today announced that it is stripping the UK Space Agency of its independent status and absorbing it into a larger agency, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology,
Taking place by April 2026, the new unit will keep the UK Space Agency (UKSA) name and brand and will be staffed by experts from both organisations. This will drive up efficiency in line with the government’s Plan for Change, cutting red tape and making Whitehall more agile.
Today also sees the publication of over 60 recommendations from industry leaders on how to improve regulation for space missions, including Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) – where spacecraft work together in orbit.
The press release is filled with similar language extolling this bureaucratic change as guaranteeing a reduction of the red tape that has squelched the space industry in the United Kingdom, but a close review should make us all highly skeptical. The link for those “60 recommendations” lists nothing of a kind. Instead, it provides a second link to a report describing a government simulation of a licensing process for a commercial rendezvous and proximity satellite mission (RPO) (working with three different commercial companies) which is filled with bureaucratic language that is practically incomprehensible. For example, from the executive summary:
This independent report presents the outputs of Stage 1 of the regulatory Sandbox (hereafter, the Sandbox) for Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) – a project delivered by the RPO Operators Consortium (hereafter, the Consortium) composed of Astroscale, ClearSpace and D-Orbit, for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), with the participation of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the United Kingdom Space Agency – between December 2024 and March 2025. The principal outputs are the Sandbox methodology, which can be used for other future sandboxes, and a set of identified challenges for RPO operators with recommendations to address them. The report also presents other findings of the Sandbox, including on spectrum challenges, insurance considerations, and the economic impact assessment of the Sandbox.
If you can figure out what was accomplished from that paragraph, you are a better man than I.
The report’s conclusion however does state that this simulation “identified more than 61 targeted recommendations for HMG [His Majesty’s Government] and the regulator to strengthen the UK regulatory environment for RPO missions. The recommendations proposed are all aimed at providing a clear, transparent, proportionate and predictable regulatory framework.”
Yet, when it then attempts to describe some of these recommendations, it dives back into gobbledygook such as this:
Issue guidance confirming that the UK’s existing framework, particularly section 1(4) of the SIA 2018, covers RPO missions under “operating a space object,” while clarifying who is legally considered the operator and who merely has technical control.
Nor does this report provide a list of all those recommendations.
All in all, this report and the actions of the UK’s present Labor government in regards to streamlining its space licencing red tape do not appear like they will accomplish much. Moreover, the decision to consolidate the UK Space Agency into another agency while removing its executive independence appears to reduce its power to influence government action. Instead, this report and the consolidation seem merely that bureaucracy’s effort to prevent any real change at all.
My pessimism could still prove wrong. We won’t know for at least a year or two, as new companies attempt to obtain launch and satellite licences. If the process speeds up, than this plan will have made a different. If not, the UK’s space industry will continue to fall behind the rest of the world.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Soon to be gone, and likely forgotten
The Starmer Labor government in the United Kingdom today announced that it is stripping the UK Space Agency of its independent status and absorbing it into a larger agency, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology,
Taking place by April 2026, the new unit will keep the UK Space Agency (UKSA) name and brand and will be staffed by experts from both organisations. This will drive up efficiency in line with the government’s Plan for Change, cutting red tape and making Whitehall more agile.
Today also sees the publication of over 60 recommendations from industry leaders on how to improve regulation for space missions, including Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) – where spacecraft work together in orbit.
The press release is filled with similar language extolling this bureaucratic change as guaranteeing a reduction of the red tape that has squelched the space industry in the United Kingdom, but a close review should make us all highly skeptical. The link for those “60 recommendations” lists nothing of a kind. Instead, it provides a second link to a report describing a government simulation of a licensing process for a commercial rendezvous and proximity satellite mission (RPO) (working with three different commercial companies) which is filled with bureaucratic language that is practically incomprehensible. For example, from the executive summary:
This independent report presents the outputs of Stage 1 of the regulatory Sandbox (hereafter, the Sandbox) for Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) – a project delivered by the RPO Operators Consortium (hereafter, the Consortium) composed of Astroscale, ClearSpace and D-Orbit, for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), with the participation of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the United Kingdom Space Agency – between December 2024 and March 2025. The principal outputs are the Sandbox methodology, which can be used for other future sandboxes, and a set of identified challenges for RPO operators with recommendations to address them. The report also presents other findings of the Sandbox, including on spectrum challenges, insurance considerations, and the economic impact assessment of the Sandbox.
If you can figure out what was accomplished from that paragraph, you are a better man than I.
The report’s conclusion however does state that this simulation “identified more than 61 targeted recommendations for HMG [His Majesty’s Government] and the regulator to strengthen the UK regulatory environment for RPO missions. The recommendations proposed are all aimed at providing a clear, transparent, proportionate and predictable regulatory framework.”
Yet, when it then attempts to describe some of these recommendations, it dives back into gobbledygook such as this:
Issue guidance confirming that the UK’s existing framework, particularly section 1(4) of the SIA 2018, covers RPO missions under “operating a space object,” while clarifying who is legally considered the operator and who merely has technical control.
Nor does this report provide a list of all those recommendations.
All in all, this report and the actions of the UK’s present Labor government in regards to streamlining its space licencing red tape do not appear like they will accomplish much. Moreover, the decision to consolidate the UK Space Agency into another agency while removing its executive independence appears to reduce its power to influence government action. Instead, this report and the consolidation seem merely that bureaucracy’s effort to prevent any real change at all.
My pessimism could still prove wrong. We won’t know for at least a year or two, as new companies attempt to obtain launch and satellite licences. If the process speeds up, than this plan will have made a different. If not, the UK’s space industry will continue to fall behind the rest of the world.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News