The space sector has taken off as Oxfordshire’s Harwell Space Cluster and the Oxford to Cambridge Arc have helped drive growth in the space sector in the region.

According to a report from ‘Size and Health of the UK Space Industry’ the number of space-related organisations in the South East has grown by 25 per cent, from 368 to 460, with 325 of them having their head quarters in the area, up from 269.

The number of people in the region employed in the space sector has gone from 9,023 to 10,475 – an increase of 16 per cent.

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Science Minister Amanda Solloway said: “Oxford is renowned worldwide as a centre of excellence in space – and the sector is at the heart of the government’s plan for jobs and growth. 

“We’ll keep working with space companies large and small to push the frontiers of science and exploration as we build back better from the pandemic.”

Harwell Space Cluster is Europe’s most concentrated space cluster and it is home to more than 100 companies, employing more than 1,100 people.

For the first time the ‘Size and Health of the UK Space Industry’ also looked at the diversity of the industry and found that more than one in three employees are female.

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