Video: Glasgow builds more satellites than anywhere else in Europe

Some satellites are only the size of a whisky bottle box. Picture: John Devlin

For 12 years, Glasgow firm Clyde Space has been exporting space satellites around the world but the city wasn’t always been a global leader.

David Lee met up with Clyde Space CEO and founder Craig Clark to talk about the growth in Scotland’s space sector.

He said: “The initial reaction I had from my fellow Glaswegians were, ‘We don’t do that here’.”

To Craig’s delight, the space sector has opened up so much in Scotland that it’s now “just assumed that we do that here”, ahead of the advent of space ports in Scotland.

Joining Craig on The Scotsman’s Facebook Live at Clyde Space was Dr Hina Khan, Innovation Lead at the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications.

“Over the last couple of years, Glasgow is now building more satellites than anywhere across Europe and only limited by those in San Francisco,” said Dr Khan.

In the Facebook Live broadcast, you can see Craig show off a satellite Clyde Space is engineering for an American School, complete with an autograph from Taylor Swift.

“Schools are able to talk to the space craft across the internet, take pictures, download them,” he said.

Dr Khan applauds the number of initiatives by the Scottish Government and is keen to keep the industry moving forward.

“It’s understanding that this is something Scotland does - and does very well - so we should make sure that we move that forward and the government are very much behind these opportunities.”

You can watch the highlights from the broadcast in the player above, or watch the full interview at Clyde Space on facebook.com/TheScotsmanNewspaper

The discussion was held in partnership with Young Company Finance who are hosting their annual conference titled Getting to exit: Trade sales on September 15.