Canadian space company MDA has announced that it will be significantly expanding their operation in the United Kingdom (UK).
According to a statement from MDA, it will “double its UK workforce and operational footprint over the next 12 months.” The announcement was made during the 2023 UK Space Conference in Belfast, where MDA “confirmed plans to expand its talent base and operational capacity across the United States.”
Specifically, MDA UK (a wholly owned subsidiary of MDA) will be hiring 75 new employees by the end of 2024. In the announcement, it said that they will be “actively recruiting for entry level to senior positions in critical engineering disciplines.”
MDA will also be “expanding its operational footprint across the UK,” according to the announcement. This includes leasing a new facility in Stevenage with capacity for up to 100 digital satellite payload specialists, integrating and expanding an existing facility in Manchester that will house up to 40 digital satellite communications staff, and expanding an existing facility in Didcot by leasing additional space to accommodate new staff “working on a range of exploration and in-orbit servicing missions.”
This comes fresh off the news that MDA has received a $180 million contract to produce a minimum of 36 satellites for an as-yet-undisclosed customer. Considering the proximity of the announcements they would seem to be related, but an email exchange with SpaceQ, Anita Bernie, Managing Director of MDA UK clarified that there was no connection between the UK expansion and the new customer.
It also comes fresh off the news in early November of MDA UK successfully completing its acquisition of the UK-based digital payload division of SatixFy Communications Ltd.
At the time, SpaceQ Editor-in-Chief Marc Boucher noted that “even though the markets have had a rough ride this year with the S&P/TSX Composite Index up 0.5% year to date, MDA’s stock is up 87% in the same period.” MDA also recently announced that Q3 revenue was up 19% year-over-year, thanks to growth in all three of the company’s business areas, particularly in satellite systems and in robotics and space operations.
Growing UK Presence
Bernie said in the email exchange that MDA’s expansion in the UK actually “began several years ago,” beginning with its work supporting the UK Space Agency (UKSA) in developing the COLKa communications terminal that is currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS), along with its acquisition of Neptec UK. MDA in the UK is now “a leading expert supplier of sensors for Lunar landings, in orbit servicing, proximity operations and space domain awareness,” she said, and they are working to “support the rapidly growing lunar exploration market in the UK and Europe.”
Bernie also pointed to how the UK and Canada “share deep and established business, culture and bilateral relationships,” including in space, as a reason for making it a “natural expansion market for us.” She said that the UK’s space trade association “is the envy of many other countries,” and that the UK is “a good place to land and expand.”
This current announcement was, according to Bernie, principally “a timely opportunity to announce our expansion,” and that the expansion was a marker of how the company is “now building success and momentum in the communications constellation market.”
Space Sensors
Regarding the question of what the new people will be doing, Bernie pointed to their “growing space sensors business,” including lunar lander sensors playing a role in “lunar missions slated for launch in 2024.” This presumably refers to their project for an “undisclosed US-based space company” (speculated to be related to Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander) as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, as well as Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 and IM-2 missions.
Bernie’s comments also likely refer to their two commercial lunar landing sensors: LEIA (Lidar) and FLARE (Laser Range Finder).
Regardless, Bernie said in her email to SpaceQ that MDA has “almost doubled in the last couple of years in both Canada and UK,” and that this new doubling “mirrors the overall growth we’re anticipating across the entire organization.” She said that they “expect to leverage other areas of MDA’s market leadership to address opportunities from our UK base.”
In the announcement, MDA CEO Mike Greenley said that MDA is “looking for countries with space ambitions, space budgets and a space ecosystem including critical talent that can help fuel our growth,” and said that “ the UK Space Agency is taking the type of holistic and highly strategic approach to industrial development and investment that we look for.”
In turn, UKSA Chief Executive Paul Bate said that “MDA UK’s expansion is fantastic news,” and that it will help the agency “seize the significant opportunities associated with the Low Earth Orbit economy and maintain a leading role in the development of advanced satellite technologies.” Bate called the expansion “a great example of what it means to make the UK one of the most innovative and attractive space economies in the world.”
The UK Minister of State for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, Andrew Griffith, said that MDA’s expansion “is truly welcome news.” He also said that the goal of “transforming communications infrastructure” is “vital to closing connectivity gaps across the UK and around the world,” and that they were planning on supporting the UK space sector with a “£160 million ($275 million CAD) investment scheme – Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit – to drive the development of next-generation satellite communications.”