‘MIT in the North’: £50m space and tech centre announced for Northumbria University
A £50 million space and technology centre will be built at Northumbria University in an attempt to create an “MIT in the North”.
The American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and the UK Space Agency are part-funding the venture, which will design and build satellites for launch and train the next generation of space engineers.
A suite of state-of-the art research labs, classrooms and clean rooms – dubbed “the space station” – will be situated in Newcastle city centre.
Known formally as the North East Space Skills and Technology centre (NESST), the project is expected to create 350 jobs and lead the way in research in space weather, space-based solar power, optical communications, 3D-printed satellites and solar physics.
Dr Robert Wicks, the head of Northumbria’s Space Technology Laboratory, said: “I think we’d like to be discussed as an MIT in the North, known for technological excellence and space technology. That’s the envelope we’d like to go for.
“My dream is to reach children at the age of 14 or 15, get them excited about space, get them building little satellites, bringing their idea to university and by the end of their degree having launched their own satellite from the UK on a UK rocket. That’s the goal we should have.
“This is an opportunity to be genuinely innovative in education and in the industry, thinking about things like 3D-printed satellites which can be made in a month rather than a year. That’s slightly adventurous but we should be pushing in that direction and not doing the same as everyone else.”
He added: “It’s not just about space engineers, we need to understand the market, the legal situation. Just because Elon Musk can launch 10,000 satellites, should he? Is it legal? These are the things we need to be thinking about and teaching.”
Lockheed Martin, which is investing £15 million, will become the first anchor tenant in the new space centre, helping British companies to access the global space market and launch opportunities at home and abroad.
The aerospace company is expected to launch its UK Pathfinder mission from SaxaVord spaceport in Shetland.
The £10 million UK Space Agency award for Northumbria University was announced at the UK Space Conference on Wednesday afternoon to support the development of NESST.
Northumbria University is matching the funding to create a £50 million investment.
Andrew Griffith, the science minister, said: “Making Britain a space superpower means backing brilliant ideas up and down the land and harnessing the full potential of talent in our growing sector.”
The project is expected to inject more than £260 million into the North East economy in the next 30 years, as part of the Government’s levelling-up agenda.
Northumbria University also recently received £5 million from the UK Space Agency to build a new laser-based satellite communications system.
Jamie Driscoll, the Mayor of the North of Tyne, said: “The North East is famous as a centre of innovation and technological firsts, from the railways to the light bulb.
“When RMS Mauretania launched from Wallsend more than a century ago, she went on to set new speed records across the Atlantic – who knows what NESST will achieve.”
The UK Space Agency award to Northumbria is the largest of all the projects funded and the maximum amount that could be granted under the organisation’s new Space Clusters Infrastructure Fund.
Prof Andy Long, the vice-chancellor of Northumbria University, said: “Northumbria University and the North East as a region will be on the global map as a centre of excellence in space technology, the place to go and the partner to work with.”
