SMEs and first-time exhibitors join DSEI’s newly created Space Hub

Posted on 29 July, 2019 by Advance 

The debut of the DSEI Space Hub at DSEI 2019 will represent a unique opportunity for industry specialists, delegates and the MoD to look to the future and discuss the capabilities and challenges offered through the rapidly-growing space sector. The sector’s UK income currently stands at £14.8billion, and it looks set to increase its presence in the defence industry as next-generation technology and threats continue to emerge. DSEI, the biennial defence and security exhibition, takes place at ExCeL London 10-13 September. The Aerospace Theatre and Space Hub will be sponsored by Thales Alenia. The Theatre will kick off Day 1 with a series of space-focused talks, including from premier global intelligence platform Blacksky.

One new exhibitor set to appear in the Hub is GovSat, a joint venture between the Luxembourg government and world-leading satellite operator SES, whose mission is to provide secure and accessible satellite communication systems to governmental users. Discussing the decision to exhibit in DSEI’s latest venture, GovSat VP and CCO Paul Wells said, “We saw [DSEI] as an ideal opportunity to meet with all the key global users of military SATCOM to discuss how we may help them. By providing one of the largest hardened and secure SATCOM capabilities over Europe, we see this exhibition as a means to brief our customers and potential partners on the high throughput and secure services we are already providing.”

Teledyne e2v, the UK branch of Teledyne technology which is focused strongly on the space sector, have expressed their hopes that the new Hub will allow them to branch out from their traditional defence reputation and show that they are UK leaders in the space industry, including boosting the profile of their image sensors which are designed and built in Chelmsford, Essex and currently flying on the majority of Earth Observation programmes in space.

Mark Bown, Marketing Manager at Teledyne e2v said: “The Space Hub At DSEI now enables the event to attract a wider group of delegates with a space focus. This new hub provides an exciting opportunity for those with a space interest to come along and meet, network with and learn more about those leading in this technology of the sector”.

Also representing UK Industry will be Oxford Space Systems, who recently won a £1million Government Technology Grant from the MoD’s Defence and Security Accelerator for wrapped-rib antenna development. Delighted to see the UK government defence departments supporting SMEs, Business Development Manager Michael Loweth and Senior Commercial Strategist Shefali Sharma told Inside DSEI magazine, “As a small but growing company… we were especially thrilled to be the first ever, first-time supplier to be awarded a £1million contract”.

Mr Loweth said of their decision to exhibit in the new hub, “The space industry impacts all aspects of our everyday lives, not least security and defence. With previous experience in the military environment, and having attended DSEI conferences before, Oxford Space Systems is well aware of the quality, worldwide audience that attends. As such, the newly-formed Space Hub gives OSS a fantastic opportunity to showcase our unique deployable antenna & structure technologies, as well as acting as a focal point to attract potential customers and collaborators. We’ll be profiling how our technologies can help solve the security challenges for governments & industry around the globe in the areas of all-weather remote sensing from orbit, secure satcomms and stealth technologies for space assets.” 


The OSS wrapped-rib antenna on display at the Space Hub brings a disruptive approach to Earth observation from space



Among first-time exhibitors will be Avanti Communications, a British-based company building pioneering satellite technology to provide connectivity in remote and demanding locations and counting the MoD and DoD among their largest customers.

Donald Walker, Director Of Government, Defence & Security said: “Avanti enables digitalisation.  At DSEI we will demonstrate the unique capabilities Ka-band satellite connectivity can bring to government and military users, and show the applications and terminal types that Avanti’s high throughput technology can deliver to our customers”

The Space Hub will be located within the Aerospace Zone of DSEI 2019. Day Zero (Monday 9th September) will include DSEI’s Aerospace Capability Conference supported by the Ministry of Defence, which will include a session on “Space: Coalition Warfighting” exploring the RAF’s vision for its expanding space capabilities including collaborative work with coalition partners.