A £500,000 project to establish a satellite management and monitoring service in Argyll has secured up to £194,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). The project is being led by Exotopic Ltd at the Machrihanish Airbase Business Park near Campbeltown. Over the next three years the project is forecast to generate almost £3m for the local economy and lead to 11 new skilled jobs supporting operations and maintenance of the facility, and the expansion of Exotopic’s ground network.
According to HIE, the funding will support a new service delivery project, including the upgrade of ground stations and a new resilient operations room with specialist equipment and software in the company’s facility on the former airbase. With a dedicated control room, Exotopic will be able to manage and monitor satellites in orbit, working with space enterprises looking to deploy technology into space at low cost and to ensure the safe operation of assets on orbit. Exotopic’s own demonstration satellite, Give Me Some Space, is currently awaiting launch and will eventually be operated from Machrihanish, with a new team of operators and support staff ensuring 24/7 operations and compliance with strict regulation.
Morag Goodfellow, HIE area manager for Argyll and the Islands, said: “This is about strengthening Scotland’s position with regards to new markets and growing industries, one of which is space, and creating new skilled jobs in rural areas. Exotopic has identified a new market within the space sector. The company has the expertise to service this market and generate economic activity at Machrihanish, which is an ideal location for space related services. There’s already a programme of work scheduled to begin in the summer with several clients.” She added: “I’m delighted we’ve been able to provide support and look forward to seeing this new venture get underway.”
Exotopic CEO Andy Grey said: “When I visited the site in 2019 there was clear potential to establish, and to some degree re-establish, a critical infrastructure for the UK and its allies. Over several years and with the support of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Machrihanish Airbase Community Company, Argyll and Bute Council and the UK Space Agency, we have worked to develop systems that will be used to deliver important capabilities across the world, from facilities located in Campbeltown. This project will see the team at Machrihanish monitoring and operating satellites as they orbit the globe.”
As reported by Caithness Business in its 24 July coverage, the site owner, Machrihanish Airbase Community Company (MACC), has worked closely with Exotopic to expand specialist space capabilities at the former airbase, which is also home to a specialist rocket engine test facility operated by Exotopic in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, and is utilised for R&D by leading European satellite launch operators. Caithness Business notes that Machrihanish draws international space sector talent through Exotopic’s Mach-X rocketry competition series, and that this year it will host students from more than 20 European countries as part of training with the European Space Agency Academy.
Separately, the University of Glasgow last year confirmed that MachLab — Exotopic’s rocket propulsion test facility at Machrihanish, delivered in collaboration with University of Glasgow researchers — had been successfully commissioned, and that the Glasgow team continues to collaborate with Exotopic on the delivery of the operational service.
For Scotland, the announcement is a tangible step in building sovereign UK satellite operations capability in Argyll — control-room infrastructure, ground-station upgrades and a 24/7 operations team on Scottish soil, sitting alongside the existing MachLab propulsion test bed and Exotopic’s education work with the European Space Agency Academy.
