Lockheed Martin UK (space)

The UK arm of the American aerospace company Lockheed Martin, whose space work includes a Harwell office, engineering at Ampthill and the UK Pathfinder satellite launch from Shetland.

About Lockheed Martin UK (space)

Lockheed Martin is a large American aerospace and defence company, and its UK operation covers many fields. This entry covers its space work in the UK. Lockheed Martin Space opened a space office at the UK Space Gateway in Harwell in 2014, with the aim of exploring space opportunities and building partnerships with UK businesses and universities. At Ampthill in Bedfordshire, UK engineers work on technologies such as thermal protection systems for re-entry vehicles, payload release mechanisms and landing systems.

The best-known UK space project is the UK Pathfinder Launch, announced in 2018 with the UK Space Agency. The plan is to launch a small satellite on an ABL Space Systems RS1 rocket from the SaxaVord spaceport on Unst in the Shetland Islands. An orbital manoeuvring vehicle, called the SL-OMV, is built by Moog in Reading and can deploy up to six small CubeSat satellites in low Earth orbit. In a 2022 update, Lockheed Martin's UK and Europe regional director Nik Smith said it was making great progress towards the UK's first vertical, orbital satellite launch. The spacecraft will be tested in Lockheed Martin's Systems Integration Laboratory at Harwell.

We did not find a mission statement for the UK space business. The company's 2022 update said that Lockheed Martin has operated in the UK for over 80 years, at 23 locations. In its 2014 announcement it said the Harwell office would help support the UK's goal of keeping and growing its space capabilities. We found nothing about its values or culture in the sources we could read, so we have not written about them.

The UK sites we have evidence for are Harwell in Oxfordshire, Ampthill in Bedfordshire, and links to Reading, Shetland and the Scottish spaceport sites through the Pathfinder project. A 2014 outreach tour met over 30 space industry organisations, travelling to Harwell, Oxford and Glasgow. The Harwell location puts the company beside the European Space Agency, RAL Space and many other space organisations. Whether more space manufacturing, such as building its A2100 class spacecraft in the UK, goes ahead depends on suitable assembly and test facilities.

People employed in Lockheed Martin's UK space activity include systems and test engineers, integration specialists, programme and project managers, engineers who model flight and re-entry, partnership and business development staff, and the support teams that any large company needs. The sources we found are dated, 2014 and 2022, so check the Lockheed Martin UK website to see how the space business is organised today.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Working with partners to launch a small satellite from the SaxaVord spaceport in Shetland.', 'title': 'UK Pathfinder Launch'}
• {'desc': 'A Systems Integration Laboratory at Harwell used to test the spacecraft.', 'title': 'Systems integration and test'}
• {'desc': 'Engineering at Ampthill on thermal protection, payload release and landing systems.', 'title': 'Re-entry and landing technologies'}

Key facts

• Space office opened at the UK Space Gateway, Harwell, in 2014
• UK space-related engineering at Ampthill, Bedfordshire (UK Space Facilities directory)
• UK Pathfinder Launch from SaxaVord, Unst, with the Moog-built SL-OMV from Reading
• Operated in the UK for over 80 years at 23 locations (company 2022 update)

Website: www.lockheedmartin.com