Attracted by increased UK funding and the UK’s low business tax rates, the European space manufacturer Thales Alenia Space has announced the creation of a new British subsidiary, Thales Alenia Space UK which will be based at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus (HISC) in Oxfordshire. The announcement follows the opening of Thales Alenia Space subsidiary in Germany in 2011 and the extension of the presence of Thales Alenia Space in Belgium by the creation of an office in Leuven.
The company admits that the decision to locate a new subsidiary in the UK was spurred by the UK Government’s commitment to fund space activities and create new initiatives to foster growth in the space industry – including the formation of the UK Space Agency, an increased contribution to the European Space Agency (ESA), the investment in the UK Space Gateway at Harwell, and more recently securing a significant share of the Neosat program for the UK. Thales Alenia Space UK will be an integral part of Thales Alenia Space Neosat prime engineering activities, and will contribute to the design and production of the propulsion subsystem for this new platform.
