Editor's comment: Lots in space

With the aerospace manufacturing industry on an enforced hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the space industry has been grabbing the technology headlines as our night skies have lit up with all manner of commercial spaceflight tests, rocket launches and satellite fly-pasts.

The dawn of a new era of orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism is being ushered in by companies like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX looking to enable space tourists - with astronomical wads of money - to literally reach for the stars.

Meanwhile, Serco, Inmarsat, CGI UK and Lockheed Martin UK are ready for lift-off by combining their expertise by further enhancing the UK’s ability to deliver its ‘Prosperity and Security in Space’ strategy. The aim is to increase the value of space to wider industrial activities to £500 billion, generate an extra £5bn in UK exports and attract £3bn of additional inward investment.

And at the time of writing, it’s all systems go for Fluency Marketing’s SpaceAM (www.spaceamcon.com) conference this September. Here, attendees will get the chance to join a growing global community working together to develop and launch innovation into orbit and beyond.

We are living in a world that is critically dependent on space technology and with that comes the need for the advanced materials and the products to deliver the best possible opportunities and cultural impact for the space industry. It’s a magic time when super-science mingles with the bright stuff of dreams.

Mike Richardson, editor