Executive summary
Published 22 April 2025
© Crown copyright 2025
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The 2021 UK National Space Strategy (NSS) identified eight key civil and defence capability priorities. Amongst these is the requirement to develop Space Domain Awareness (SDA) capabilities to enable the “detection, identification, and tracking of objects in space… to ensure that the UK has knowledge of what is occurring in space.”
As part of efforts to develop this capability, the National Space Operations Centre (NSpOC) was formally established on 16 May 2024; at its core, the UK SDA capability is intended to “reduce the risk to UK civilian interests in space and on earth from fragmentation, conjunction/collision and re-entry incidents as part of a National Space Operations Centre.”
The UK Space Agency, and by extension the UK, is at the beginning of its SDA journey, now realised and centred on NSpOC. The majority of anticipated impacts, therefore, are not yet realised. However, there is a clear pattern which emerges across all three areas of evaluation – process, impact, and value for money (VfM) – which is one of laying the foundations for future impact. The evidence suggests strong early progress towards the delivery of a national capability.
Whilst the report seeks to evaluate all three of these areas, the nascent nature of the programme means that this evaluation is largely a process evaluation, with elements of perceived impacts and value for money elements included. It is expected that, as the SDA programme matures, more robust and attributable evidence related to these areas will emerge, enabling a clearer understanding of the total effectiveness and efficacy of UK efforts in this area.
know.space were commissioned by the UK Space Agency to undertake evaluation activities for the UK Space Agency-related civil elements of the UK’s Space Domain Awareness (SDA) programme. Focusing on the precursor stages of National Space Operations Centre (NSpOC) operations (i.e. those actions undertaken, facilitated, or enabled by the UK Space Agency ahead of the formal launch of NSpOC in May 2024), this report examines the effectiveness and impact of these activities in delivering credible national SDA services.