The Satellite Applications Catapult welcomes His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to Harwell
Marketing
The Satellite Applications Catapult was honoured to welcome His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to Harwell today on a visit hosted jointly by John Auburn, CEO of Astroscale Ltd. and Sanjay Bhandari, Chair of the Satellite Applications Catapult.
The visit provided His Royal Highness with an opportunity to learn more about Astroscale’s ELSA-d mission, which is being controlled from the Satellite Applications Catapult’s National In-Orbit Servicing Control Centre.
The visit highlights the growing issue of space debris, and the need for action and enabling regulation to ensure the sustainability of the space environment. This issue is of Increasing importance as more small satellites are launched globally and represents an exciting opportunity for UK companies, which have significant expertise in the field of debris removal.
During the visit, His Royal Highness attended a roundtable with: George Freeman MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; Paul Bate, CEO of the UK Space Agency; Neil Masterson, CEO of OneWeb; Lucy Edge COO at the Satellite Applications Catapult and John Auburn, Managing Director of Astroscale Ltd. The roundtable focussed on priorities for the space environment and intended to garner a broad coalition of support to ensure the ongoing and sustainable use of space for the benefit of humankind.
Sanjay Bhandari, Chair of the Satellite Applications Catapult said:
“It was an honour to welcome His Royal Highness today to discuss space sustainability. This area is one of the most pressing concerns for the future of our industry, with space debris set to present an increasing danger to satellites in orbit unless we do things differently.
We very much enjoyed demonstrating the capabilities at the National In-Orbit Servicing Control Centre and those of innovative companies like Astroscale, who are working tirelessly to find solutions to this growing problem.”
