1)
To explore the possibility of testing rocket engines >30kN here in the UK in potentially disused MOD sites which have the required qualifications and safety assurances.
2)
To explore the market potential for such a range of rocket testing, including the accessibility restrictions of the other sites worldwide.
3)
To understand market internationally for this kind of site and why there is a gap in the market, or what bottleneck this will alleviate.
4)
To explore the possibility and benefits of the site having freeport status.
5)
A detailed understanding of the sites that are being assess for use as test sites, why these sites were chosen, and any additional work required to make them suitable for rocket testing.
6)
To understand current world and UK market position of testing >30kN rocket engines and why having such a site in the UK would be beneficial.
UK Space Agency have commissioned the British Standards Institute to develop British Standards relating to Space Sustainability relating to both Launch Requirements and wider orbital areas.
UK Space Agency have commissioned the British Standards Institute to develop British Standards relating to Space Sustainability relating to both Launch Requirements and wider orbital areas.
The provision of a dedicated Orbital Analyst team, provided by the Supplier to perform Space Domain Awareness (SDA) duties to support the safety of civil and commercial satellite operations. This contract also includes the provision of a Laptop Management Service supporting analyst laptops.
This is not an opportunity, but a Contract Award Notice following on from the publication of the VEAT notice on 16th April 2024 in Find a Tender to inform the Market that UK Space agency has direct awarded the contract to Growbotics Space Limited who will further develop a current UK IOSM capabilities map and analyse what is missing for the UK to establish leadership in this field. It will build on the ongoing work by the UK Space IOSM Working Group to identify IOSM priorities for the UKSpace Sector.
The awarded contract involves two elements: 1) maintenance of existing provision of specialist technical support for Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) programmes including the UK contribution to the ESA NAVISP programme 2) continued provision of specialist resource to support the development of a new business case for a satellite-based augmentation system.
This is a Voluntary Transparency Notice. UK Space Agency will be looking to award a contract under Regulation 32(2)(B)(ii) of the Public Contract Regulations 2015, which allows for the use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication "where the works, supplies or services can be supplied only by a particular economic operator for any of the following reasons:
(ii) competition is absent for technical reasons
The objective of the contract involves two elements: 1) maintenance of existing provision of specialist technical support for Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) programmes including the UK contribution to the ESA NAVISP programme 2) continued provision of specialist resource to support the development of a new business case for a satellite-based augmentation system, which cannot be delivered without additional technical resource.
The justification for award without prior publication of a contract notice is that there is a need to ensure a continuation of service to support the ESA NAVISP programme and the ongoing development of the satellite-based augmentation system. Delivery of both these elements would be severely impacted if this contract is not extended and the current provision and resource were lost, including to a major ESA programme. The current contractor has been deeply involved in these programmes and the time it would take for another contract to be awarded and an alternative supplier to commence delivery would have significant impacts on the programmes that would jeopardise the delivery of their objectives. Introducing a new supplier would also likely result in additional costs and not deliver a robust product or value for money. The justification is therefore that this is essential to ensure the same high level of technical support on the development of complex ongoing requirements. This award will be made in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 clause 32(2)(b)(ii), where competition is absent for technical reasons.
Subject to UK Space Agency receiving no notice during the standstill period of any intention to legally challenge the award process, UK Space Agency intends to award the Proposed Contract after 12:00 PM on 10th May 2024 to Roke Manor Research Limited.
This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition funded by the UK Space Agency.
The Aim of this competition is to undertake research and technology development to derisk national ADR mission concepts. This competition invites applicants to submit mission designs which are compliant to UKSA Active Debris Removal mission requirements, identify the top risk areas in those designs, and deliver a package of risk reduction activity which will enhance and increase technology readiness levels of the submitted mission preliminary designs.
A total of up to £4.7m inclusive of VAT, is allocated to this competition.
We expect to fund a maximum of two projects. Each project should be delivered by 31st March 2025.
Each project can range in size up to total costs of £2.35m, inclusive of VAT.
Please refer to attachments for the full competition guidance .
Additional information: Please refer to the attachment SBRI - ADR Competition Brief for the full scope of this procurement and guidance on how to respond to this competition.
***** THIS IS AN AWARD NOTICE, NOT A CALL FOR COMPETITION *****
This procurement is being concluded following a direct award under the RM6179 CCS Legal Services Panel Lot 2
Brief Description of Requirement
This work will involve providing legal advice and conducting legal due diligence to support HMG
This is a switch to direct award under Section 43 of the Procurement Act, on the basis no suitable tender submissions were received for Sub-Lot 4.2 of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Co-ordination Committee (IADC) 2025-26 tender. One bid was received which did not satisfy the Contracting Authority's requirements or the award criteria when assessed by reference to the assessment methodology and the relative importance of the criteria indicated under section 23(3).
There was a minor commercial deficiency in the bid which could not be addressed during the tender process, which has been addressed subsequently to facilitate this direct award.
The appointed supplier will investigate the technologies that underpin reliable post-mission disposal operations, considering those that achieve compliance to one or more of the post-mission disposal guidelines within the IADC Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines. Develop and populate a catalogue to capture key information on each technology and critically evaluate the most promising solutions across cases for single-spacecraft missions and large constellations.
This contract is for stand space, design, build, and dismantling for a UKSA stand at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026, in Barcelona, for a contract value up to £98,000 (including VAT).
There is a strategic requirement for UKSA to be part of the UK Pavilion at MWC in line with the government's 'One Government' policy and to most effectively amplify our presence in a very crowded and competitive international event. Due to its size and nature, access to the MWC conference area is limited to organisations able to meet the requirements of the venue. In order to be part of the UK Pavilion and meet our strategic objective, TradeFair is the only supplier that can deliver this requirement for UKSA as TradeFair is the appointed supplier for the UK Pavilion.
This direct award is for stand space, design, build, and dismantling for a UKSA stand at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026, in Barcelona, for a contract value up to £170,000 (including VAT).
There is a strategic requirement for UKSA to be part of the UK Pavilion at MWC in line with the government's 'One Government' policy and to most effectively amplify our presence in a very crowded and competitive international event. Due to its size and nature, access to the MWC conference area is limited to organisations able to meet the requirements of the venue. In order to be part of the UK Pavilion and meet our strategic objective, TradeFair is the only supplier that can deliver this requirement for UKSA as TradeFair is the appointed supplier for the UK Pavilion.
UKSA intends to procure a supplier to act as an external delivery partner to provide highly specialist knowledge, skills and expertise (KSE) in relation to capabilities relevant to national security, specifically Space Domain Awareness (SDA), In-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM) and Space Control and Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT). This is a call-off contract for the provision of knowledge, skills and experience relating to individual work packages within SDA, ISAM and PNT that cannot be fulfilled by any other provider on grounds of technical expertise (Schedule 5, Paragraph 6). UKSA will only award call-off contracts through this mechanism following internal technical review to confirm the proposed work package is in scope of this requirement and meets the requirements set out in Schedule 5.
The call-off contract includes a number of work packages relating to national security policy development, feasibility studies and policy insights, including at classifications above OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE.
In accordance with Section 94 subsection 1(a) of the Procurement Act, no further notices or information (including the name of the supplier) will be published as withholding this information is necessary for the purpose of safeguarding national security. The work being undertaken directly supports the development of national security capabilities in the space domain, where disclosure of the supplier and further details of the requirement could expose vulnerabilities.
Overall Aim
Expand the scope of the ESA Strategic Study to encompass additional ESA Member States and key developments in the European space sector, to both support preparations for the upcoming ESA Council of Ministers 2025 (CM25) meeting and supplement the institutional knowledge of the UK Space Agency more broadly.
Objectives
- Analyse key developments in the European space sector, specifically narratives underpinning space policy formulation in the European Union (at institutional level), and the interaction between civil, military and dual use approaches to space activities employed by the ESA Member States covered under Phase 1 and 2 (Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Norway), as well as Spain, Belgium, Poland, and the European Union (EU).
- Deliver accessible insights in time for ESA’s Council of Ministers 2025 (CM25) meeting on 26-27 November 2025 (Phase 3).
- Deliver detailed analyses of the narratives underpinning space policy formulation in Spain, Belgium, Poland, and the European Union for use by UK Space Agency teams in the short-, medium-, and long- term.
The aim of this work is to help UKSA evaluate the existing infrastructure at a proposed potential test site to provide an assessment of its suitability for rocket engine testing, the modifications needed to establish the test infrastructure and the operational approach that could be adopted. The evaluation is to include proposed operating models with ROM costs and pricing.
This is being issued via direct award as it requires access to sensitive data sources and market data, as well as access to the site itself. The supplier has worked previously at the proposed site and holds the IPR related to the data referenced above.
Please note UKSA is not in a position to disclose the proposed site at this stage and will not respond to queries relating to it.
The National Space Operations Centre (NSpOC) orbital analysts require specialist software in order to perform their roles. One specialist software package they need is STK and ODTK. A maintenance and support fee are required to update the software to the latest version and transfer the software to their newly managed machines.
The software is only available from distributor in the UK who holds the licence to it. There are no other products currently available on the market that fulfil the highly specialist functions set out above.
This contract is for stand space, design, build, and dismantling for a UKSA stand at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026, in Barcelona, for a contract value up to £170,000 (including VAT).
There is a strategic requirement for UKSA to be part of the UK Pavilion at MWC in line with the government's 'One Government' policy and to most effectively amplify our presence in a very crowded and competitive international event. Due to its size and nature, access to the MWC conference area is limited to organisations able to meet the requirements of the venue. In order to be part of the UK Pavilion and meet our strategic objective, TradeFair is the only supplier that can deliver this requirement for UKSA as TradeFair is the appointed supplier for the UK Pavilion.
In 2024 HMG provided a £20m investment as a convertible loan note to Orbex. The investment was provided to enable the company to develop their small-lift launch vehicle Prime and prepare their bid for ESA's European Launcher Challenge (ELC).
HMG wishes to update the financial due diligence given progress following that investment to understand the company's current financial health including long term viability, business, expenditure and investment plans, risks to successful completion of vehicle and service development, demonstration and reaching commercialisation.