Business Times Est. 1991
February 2022
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In print and online Business Times is published in Northamptonshire for the county’s business community www.Business-Times.co.uk
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Warning to employers over ‘no jab, no sick pay’ policy. P5
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Meet the new Northamptonshire area leader for the FSB. P7
M ON EY
Chamber: Price fears temper business confidence. P8
CO MM UN ITY
Choosing the right accountant matters now more than ever. P12
Community Foundation is seeking a new chief executive. P23
Space clean-up plan puts tech firm on launchpad to success
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he ‘second golden age’ of space travel is under way with the launch of commercial flights by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Virgin group chairman Richard Branson and a boom in development of new satellites and their applications. In the next few years, an estimated 50,000 satellites will be orbiting the Earth. Add this to the already large amount of existing satellites and space is set to become crowded. Now a company based in Northampton is aiming to explore the application of autonomous vehicle
technologies to the space sector. Elestial’s vision is to develop robotic units to perform in-orbit maintenance and removal of space hardware. The company’s pioneering vision has earned it a place among the early-stage tech companies in the Midlands with the highest potential for growth, according to tech sector growth platform Tech Nation. Elestial is among the five Midlands regional winners in Tech Nation’s annual Rising Starts list. It says that the increase in the number of satellites launched by telecommunications and geospatial companies will inevitably create challenges and failures that will need to be managed to avoid economic, environmental, and geopolitical catastrophe. Its solution: robots that clean up and maintain commercial orbital highways in the short term while supporting large-scale infrastructure development in space long term. Elestial’s development manager Harry Pegg said: “Elestial’s mission is to democratise space for the masses. Rising Stars 4.0 is an awesome platform
to share our message and realise our ambitions.” Public and private sector organisations worldwide are developing solutions to the problem but none seem scalable or reusable. Within the environmental agenda a non-reusable solution is not good enough, Elestial says. The solution must be reusable, adaptable, sustainable and endlessly scalable. Mr Pegg said: “As the second golden age of space travel begins, we need to ensure that space is a sustainable and equal expanse for all and our in-orbit maintenance and inspection services can deliver this vision.” The company is already working with the University of Surrey on a new project focused on orbital debris removal. Funded by the £5 million Space Research and Innovation Network for Technology programme, Elestial is to conduct a new feasibility study with Surrey Space Centre’s STAR LAB to evaluate its orbital platform concept and assess design requirements for suitable deployment in various orbital applications. > To page 3
