Space-Comm Expo 2025

Over the 11th and 12th of March I attended the Space-Comm Expo, one of the UK’s leading events for the space industry with over 200 exhibitors and 5,000 attendees, held at London’s Excel Exhibition Centre. The expo brought together global leaders in space from NASA, the European Space Agency, the United Nations and delegates from across government, defence, aerospace and academia. With the space industry poised for rapid growth, and the UK aiming to capture 10% of the global space market by 2030, it was an opportunity for Heligan to dial into the emerging technologies that are shaping the space sector, understand the key players in the market, and assess the maturity of space as a whole.

Tech Trends Now

As space assets in orbit become increasingly interconnected – with each other and with ground stations – so too does the cyber threat they face from enemies and adversaries seeking to disrupt our critical systems. The added complexity of satellite systems, with their multitude of antennas and sensors (for communication, imagery etc), means a much larger attack surface for would-be cyber attackers. Space assets are also subject to kinetic and electronic warfare (i.e. jamming) threats, although the technology required to conduct such attacks are the preserve of only a handful of technologically advanced state actors. The impact of these threats is only exacerbated by the latency inherent in ground-to-satellite communications, making responses slow.

All of this means there is significant investment underway to protect our space systems from the full range of threats, with specific emphasis on cyber defence technologies and strategies. A move to more inter-satellite communication links, and fewer satellite-to-ground links, may help reduce the attack surface. Collaboration and intelligence sharing was also talked about as a means to mitigate threats, with the Space ISAC framework providing a solid platform.

Furthermore, legislation in the US aims to fine companies that fail to properly de-orbit defunct satellites within 5 years of their end of life, with the EU also looking to follow suit. Such legislation attempts to limit the amount of potentially dangerous space debris in orbit, mitigating the risk of a Kessler event (a scenario in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit becomes so high that collisions between objects could cause a cascade of space debris). In light of this, a number of businesses (e.g. Astroscale, Clearspace Today, Aurora) are marketing ‘in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing’ (ISAM) services, focusing on space debris collection. Commercialisation of such a service remains to be seen, but the feeling is that they are not far off it.

Horizon Scanning the Future

Space Solar are a business developing space-based solar energy harvesting. Whilst still some way off commercialisation, particularly in the technology to transmit energy by radio waves back down to Earth, it provides a compelling strategy to achieve net zero targets globally. The uninterrupted and abundant solar energy in space is also fuelling aspirations to develop data centres in space, which will lessen the current pressure being placed on terrestrial power grids.

Businesses are also developing the capability to carry out in-orbit manufacturing which would harness the benefits of the unique zero gravity conditions to produce synthetic materials in space. Space Forge aims to do just that in their manufacture of semiconductor substrates, with zero gravity conditions providing superior crystallisation in materials compared to on Earth. This phenomenon is also being banked on by biotech companies such as BioOrbit in their development of cancer drugs.

Private sector space stations are another development with use cases in space tourism, private sector R&D in space, space logistics, and debris collection.

Key Take Aways

Barriers to Investment – the capital-intensive nature of the sector means that seed and early series rounds tend to attract a high ticket price. With many UK and EU investors put off by this, it risks businesses moving to the US which has a much more attractive investment market - US investors are a lot less risk averse and are more willing to buy into the vision. Therefore, there needs much more governmental support and initiatives to keep businesses here.
Attractive Market – there are few established players, less the Defence Primes and SpaceX, which provides an element of early mover advantage for the many small innovative start-ups working within space. In the context of government space contracts, which are typically awarded to the Defence Primes who can lack specific technical capabilities, this environment also provides the potential for high levels of M&A activity in 2025. ‘Big tech’ is now also starting to take an interest in space.
High Growth Potential – the space tech market is 3x the size of the AI market, having grown consecutively for five quarters since 2022. The rise of private space services and reusable rocketry, as demonstrated by SpaceX, means that the cost per launch is drastically falling. All of this means the industry is ripe for investment and growth.
Protection of Space Assets – protecting our sovereign capabilities will be paramount as we contend with threats from our adversaries, who are looking to disrupt our vital space systems. Threats to our systems can manifest in a number of ways; notably kinetic threats from ‘anti-satellite (ASAT) missiles,’ and non-kinetic threats in the form of cyber-attacks or jamming. It is important to note that these threats are not just aimed at our assets in space, but also at our critical ground infrastructure, that facilitates communication to in-orbit systems, without which they would be rendered inert.
Investment in Sovereign Capabilities – with space systems being critical to our national security, and in the context of uncertainty in cooperation with notable allies, the government is moving towards sovereign space capabilities. This will result in greater investment from the government in UK space businesses in the years to come, boosting growth across the sector.
Attraction of Dual Use – the space sector remains an immature industry, with many businesses pre-profit. Opportunities, that match our investment criteria, are likely to lie in businesses providing a dual use product that straddles the space sector, as well as others.