The UK government is investing £6.9 million in a suite of next-generation satellite communications projects, aiming to reinforce the nation’s role in Europe’s

fast-growing space sector. The funding, channelled through the European Space Agency’s ARTES programme, will support five UK-led initiatives spanning satellite communications, navigation, in-orbit services, space domain awareness and space-data applications.

Officials say the move positions Britain to capture a share of an estimated £40 billion European satellite market expected to emerge by 2033. Even a modest portion of that growth, the UK Space Agency notes, would represent a significant boost to the domestic space economy.

Space Minister Liz Lloyd said satellites are “essential to our daily lives”, adding that investment in home-grown companies would help “cement our position as a European space leader” while generating high-skilled jobs.

The projects selected under ARTES reflect a push toward emerging and commercially relevant technologies. Orbit Fab will receive up to £2.9 million for ASTRAL, a mission to demonstrate in-orbit refuelling of electric-propulsion satellites using UK-developed hardware. Cornwall’s Goonhilly Earth Station has been awarded £1.6 million for AGILE, a LunaNet-compatible communications interface designed to support future lunar infrastructure.

Vicinity Technologies will gain £1.19 million to develop a regenerative 5G non-terrestrial network payload and user terminals aimed at enabling global connectivity. Archangel Lightworks, collaborating with Eutelsat OneWeb, will receive £356,000 for the SOLIS study, which explores incorporating free-space optical links into the OneWeb constellation.

Inmarsat Navigation Ventures, part of Viasat UK, has been allocated £881,000 for the second phase of its International Virtual Satellite Operators Network—an initiative intended to help governments manage and secure satellite communications across multiple providers.

ESA’s Director of Connectivity and Secure Communications, Laurent Jaffart, said the agency is focused on fostering a “vibrant and striving telecommunications ecosystem in Europe” while advancing toward a zero-debris future. Dr Colin Baldwin of UKspace added that the fresh wave of ARTES investment signals strong confidence in the UK’s ability to secure a meaningful share of the global satellite communications market. Photo by GW…, Wikimedia commons.