‘The dawn of the North East’s space age’: Ambition for 10,000 jobs by 2030

The North East is at the dawn of a new “space age”, say industry experts hoping that thousands more people will be working in the fast-growing sector by the end of the decade.

Opportunities for people from all backgrounds are set to open up as growth in the North East space sector continues to rocket.

This week, space industry experts from all over the world gathered in Durham for the North East Space Conference 2024.

Clive Roberts, Executive Dean for Sciences at Durham University, delivers his speech at the conference (Image: ELEANOR TIAT)

Now in its tenth year, the conference invited speakers at the cutting-edge of the industry to showcase the North East’s vital role in pioneering innovative research and technology.

Space North East England, a group connecting the local industry’s organisations and manufacturers, said that it wants 10,000 people employed in the region’s space sector by 2030.

They are appealing to people from a wide variety of educational and working backgrounds to get involved. Opportunities will not be limited to experts in rocket science, but should see careers in marketing, human resources, and even creative writing open up.

The number of people in the North East’s space industry is presently estimated at 1,300, but  John Bone, Chief Commercial Officer for Scottish rocket company, Orbex, said that “10,000 is perfectly achievable in that period”.

John Bone, Chief Commercial Officer at Orbex with his model of the Orbex Prime – it is expected to become the first vertical rocket launch in the UK (Image: ELEANOR TAIT)

He added: “When you look at where we were ten years ago it was less than a hundred [in the region’s space sector]. That’s incredible growth over that ten year span, and that’s without the likes of Lockheed Martin coming in.

“We managed to do that on what we had. Now we need investment from companies and bigger organisations to complement that already growing sector.”

Lockheed Martin are an American company that support the development of international defence systems.

In 2023, it invested £50 million into Northumbria University to create the North East Space Skills and Technology Centre (NEST). One of its functions will be to support the manufacturing of components for satellites which will hopefully generate thousands of jobs for the region.

Mr Bone said: “We do trains, we do cars – why not satellites?”

He sees the North East’s space industry as a continuation of the region’s strong industrial heritage. Recalling a colleague’s words, he said: “We used to build ships – now, we build spaceships.”

Robotic technology from the University of Sunderland is exhibited for conference spectators (Image: ELEANOR TAIT)

Nik Smith, regional director for Lockheed Martin in the UK and Europe, spoke about how he hopes to reconsider the way the industry thinks about employability.

He said: “I’m still astounded that I’m meant to be able to recruit someone based on a couple of pages of a CV and a five minute conversation. We need to break that. Space needs to, but we need to for all different sectors.

“People who sit in really non-technical roles right now may have those attributes, may have a brain functioning process that’s perfect for software development. This is especially as we begin to bring more AI driven toolsets in, meaning you may need less purely around the ability to produce coding, but you need creative thought to find out, ‘how do I solve this problem?’.”

Kim McGuinness, Mayor for the North East spoke at the conference about the value of drawing on the region’s existing skills and knowledge.

One asset in driving the North East to the forefront of the space industry, is the close collaboration of local universities. Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Teesside and Sunderland have all become increasingly involved in the manufacturing side of the space industry over recent years.

“The research expertise we have in the universities is fantastic,” Ms McGuinness said. “They respond directly to the future needs of the local space industry.

“We’ve got the highest proportion of STEM students of any region in the country, and that talent is valuable and it is here, and together we can make sure that we keep it here.”

Ms McGuinness also spoke of her hopes of attracting investment in the sector, saying: “Investment in this for me is completely practical and that’s the kind of region I want this to be. Ambitious, innovative, but really, really, practical.

“The pace of the advance we have seen in space technology in recent years, not just in our region, but globally, has been astounding, but I know our region could be at the cutting-edge of doing more.”

One high-flying individual in the space sector with a fascinating career route into the industry, is Preeya Lakhani. At only 28 years old she progressed from an apprenticeship at Gillette, to become a Programme Lead for Space with Lockheed Martin UK.

Preeya Lakhani of Lockheed Martin UK Space believes that young people will spearhead the UK space industry (Image: CONTRIBUTOR)

Preeya, who was recently diagnosed with ADHD and autism, struggled at sixth form. At Gillette, however, she found their apprenticeship recruitment methods suited her better.

“It wasn’t a written exam. It was about understanding how engineering mechanisms work, without actually having any experience in that whatsoever,” she said.

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From there, Preeya found her engineering skills were transferable to a role at Lockheed Martin UK. Since then, she has been involved in running their Space Camps for young people in the North East, and says they are “inundated with applications” every year.

She believes that the region’s young people will spearhead the UK’s space industry, adding: “I would go as far as to say this is the dawn of the North East’s space age.”

As for Lockheed Martin’s presence in the region, she says “there’s a lot more to come.”