A Glasgow-rooted maker of CubeSats and small-satellite parts, founded in 2005 as Clyde Space and now part of the Swedish-headquartered AAC Clyde Space group.
AAC Clyde Space builds small satellites and the electronic parts inside them. It started as Clyde Space in Glasgow in 2005, founded by Craig Clark, and began by making power systems, batteries and other electronics for CubeSats, which are tiny satellites built from small cubes. By January 2018 it had supplied more than 2,000 subsystems to small spacecraft, and later took on whole missions, from design to launch preparation and operation. In 2014 it built UKube-1, the first satellite made in Scotland, for the UK Space Agency. It describes its approach as repeatable products and reusable engineering, so each new customer benefits from what the last one learned.
The company grew out of a close link between industry and universities. Scottish Development International dates a partnership with the University of Strathclyde to 2008, covering student projects, research and manufacturing work. Craig Clark has been recognised as an MBE and has been named a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. We did not find a short mission statement written by the company, so we have not invented one.
The UK story has a twist. ÅAC Microtec of Sweden bought Clyde Space in 2018, and the two combined under the name AAC Clyde Space from 2019. The group's headquarters are now in Uppsala, Sweden, but Glasgow remains a manufacturing, components and operations site, so it is a company that still operates in the UK. A 2018 government release said the Glasgow business then employed about 80 people and counted NASA, the US Air Force, the European Space Agency and the UK Space Agency among its customers. In March 2026 two AAC Clyde Space satellites were launched, and ESA cited them in April 2026 as demonstrations of new production and operations capability.
Glasgow's wider small-satellite industry owes a lot to the company. A timeline from Invest Glasgow records that production in 2016 reached about six satellites a month, and that Spire Global opened its Glasgow operation in 2015 using Clyde Space facilities. A 2026 article says staff who learn their trade at a company like this often go on to start other businesses or join nearby firms, though it does not name examples. Because the company is part of a Swedish group, many people work with colleagues in other countries.
Jobs include electronics, mechanical and software engineers, test engineers who check that spacecraft survive vibration and vacuum, technicians who build and assemble parts in a cleanroom, mission operators, and project, supply chain and finance staff. Physics, engineering, computing and maths are the usual starting points, and Glasgow's universities are a long-standing source of staff.
Website: www.aac-clyde.space
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