Britain bets £62 million on satellites to end signal blackspots
Key Points
- The UK Space Agency has announced £62 million for British satellite communications and space innovation
- C-LEO's third round offers £42 million across five satellite technology areas
- A £20 million NSIP call opens with projects starting April 2027
- A further £37 million SCIF call launches in autumn
- The agency's Accelerator has backed 289 founders who raised £102.2 million
The UK Space Agency has opened £62 million in funding for British firms building satellite technology that promises better broadband for remote communities and stronger connectivity on trains, planes and ships.
Space Minister Liz Lloyd announced the funding on Monday (20 July) at the Farnborough International Airshow, splitting the money into £42 million for satellite communications and £20 million for wider space innovation projects.
The Space Agency said the investment will strengthen access to space based services that households and businesses already rely on, including broadband for hard to reach areas and mobile coverage on rail, in the air and at sea.
Lloyd framed the package as a matter of national self reliance as much as connectivity. “If we do not build national capabilities at home, we become overly dependent on others,” she said, calling space a strategic frontier rather than a purely scientific one.
Where the money is going
The larger £42 million slice comes through the third funding round of the Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit (C-LEO) programme, open to UK businesses, universities and research organisations.
Projects must target at least one of five areas: onboard processing, active antennas, optical links, networking and routing, or user terminals. The new round takes total C-LEO funding for UK organisations to as much as £77 million.
The remaining £20 million arrives through a fresh National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP) call, with successful projects due to start in April 2027.
Applicants can go through two routes, a Kick Starter strand for early stage ideas and a Major Projects strand for firms ready to commercialise. Up to 40% of the NSIP budget will focus on Space Domain Awareness and In-Space Assembly and Manufacturing, two areas the government considers vital for spotting and responding to threats in orbit.
The Space Clusters Infrastructure Fund (SCIF) will award £37 million in grants by 2030, with a new call opening in autumn, and the agency is asking interested organisations to register now.
The fund builds on a pilot phase that delivered 13 projects across the UK.
Startup pipeline gathering pace
The agency also published new figures showing its Accelerator programme has backed 289 founders since launching in 2021, helping them raise £102.2 million in investment and create 209 jobs.
The agency reports that 89% of the businesses it supported are still trading.
Satellite constellations in low Earth orbit increasingly deliver broadband to communities that fixed lines and mobile masts have never served properly, and the user terminal and antenna technology funded through C-LEO feeds directly into those services.
The government argues that building this capability at home, rather than buying it from abroad, protects the services Brits depend on while capturing a growing commercial market for UK firms.
