Dallas engineering giant Jacobs to support UK’s first satellite launch site
Dallas engineering giant Jacobs, which works with NASA, has secured a role in supporting the UK’s first vertical space satellite launch site due to be based in the Scottish Highlands.
Jacobs will assess the local supply chain and report on how advanced engineering, asset management and avionics – aviation electronics – can be transferred to the blossoming space industry.
The engineering giant, the largest services provider to NASA, will look at the potential socio-economic impacts of a growing space industry in the region.
While the UK’s hosts an array of space-hungry investors, Jacobs will also determine whether further investment is needed and plan the industry’s growth.
“With estimates that the UK’s space industry will be worth $5.6bn (£4bn) by 2030, this is a huge opportunity for the area with potential to create many high-value jobs,” Jacobs’ critical mission solutions international senior vice president, Clive White, said.
White added that Jacobs will leverage its teams which support NASA in aiding the UK-based project by Scottish government agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
“Our research, economic modelling and strategy planning will identify what needs to be done to create a space cluster of specialised industries in northern Scotland, supported by supply chain, local skills and talent, and infrastructure capable of sustaining its growth,” he said.