Space is not a vacuum, at least not from an operational perspective. Our daily life and the maintenance of critical national infrastructures, such as defence, emergency services and energy, is highly dependent on information and communications exchanges with space-based assets.

We help our customers assure and protect their space capability, both on the ground and in space, and facilities the exploitation of space-borne information to assist critical decision making.

QinetiQ has been a pioneer in the space domain for over half a century. Our long and successful history in space has been founded on the insight and specialist expertise of our team of scientists, engineers and researchers, as these ‘Postcards from the Past’ exemplify.

QinetiQ’s space capability continues to evolve to maintain its relevance to our customers, particularly in the defence and security market, which are experiencing an unprecedented growth in potential space-enabled and geospatial opportunities, yet also a proliferation of threats in, from and to space.

Our space capability aligns to our customers’ priorities -- including those outlined in the UK Government’s Defence Space Strategy (2022) and Space Industrial Plan (2024) -- ranging from Space Domain Awareness (SDA), Space Control, Space Data, Satellite Communications, and Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT).

Our value in space lies in our presence in supporting our customer across all operational domains (Space, Land, Maritime, Air and Cyber), our extensive breadth of engineering specialisms, and our strong partnering ethos, which, together, gives us a unique insight and capability to support multi-domain integration of space and assurance.

 

Our Space Capabilities

Our space focus is centred on six areas, providing support to our customer in the creation, testing and use of space-related capability, and its integration into the broader defence and security architecture:

  • Trusted Partner
  • Sovereign Technology
  • Space Domain Awareness – Observe
  • Test, Evaluation and Assurance
  • Space Data – Cyber and Information Advantage
  • Training and Simulation

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Space transcends traditional boundaries, and so should our efforts. This report is designed to stimulate the thinking required to do so.

 
Postcards from the Past

QinetiQ’s long and successful history in space has been founded on the insight and specialist expertise of its growing team of scientists, engineers and researchers.