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<p>The UK Space Agency (UKSA) was created in April 2011 to lead and foster the growing
UK space sector. It does so through funding and delivery of civil space projects and
downstream space related activities, developing space policy including advice to Ministers
and regulating UK space activities to meet international obligations.</p><p>The UKSA
formally tests its performance against such objectives in a number ways and includes
amongst these a measure of its effectiveness in promoting the UK space industry. This
is primarily through an independent bi-annual “Size and Health” survey of the UK industrial
sector which assesses the growth of the UK space economy. The Agency also monitors
contracts that flow back to UK industry from Agency-targeted subscriptions to the
European Space Agency as well as monitoring where Agency-supported research and development
work has positioned UK industry for success in future operational contracts. More
recently the Agency has extended its role in actively supporting and promoting UK
industrial exports of both satellite and emerging space-related data services.</p><p>All
objective measures from these activities point to a growing success story for our
space industry. Indeed it is one of our economy's fastest growing sectors, with an
average growth rate of almost 7.5%, and it has ambitions to increase its annual turnover
to £40 billion by 2030. The role of the Agency in this development is significant
and it has developed close relationships with industry.</p><p>The Size and Health
survey due to be published in autumn 2014 is expected to show that the Space Economy
has continued to grow between 2011 and 2013.</p><p>Its coordination of a business-driven
industrial space policy has provided leadership for the UK industrial community (acknowledged
by the UK space Innovation and Growth Strategy published in 2013) and this has been
recognised by the Parliamentary Select Committee report into the UKSA which was published
in October 2013.</p><p>The Agency serves as an effective platform to raise awareness
of the successes of the UK space sector. BIS and Agency officials continue to evaluate
its success in promoting that work using Government Communications Service best practice.</p><p>A
further key measure of success is the increasing number of overseas space companies
choosing to invest in the UK and so growing the UK's wider space capability and economic
development.</p>
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