Space - the next frontier for British companies - Telegraph Mr Clark is a veteran of the space business, cutting his teeth at Surrey Satellites, a world leader in the production of small satellites. He joined the business, a spin-out from Surrey University, back in 1994 and stayed there for 11 years before starting Clyde Space. "I had a young family and wanted to move back up to Scotland but there was no space industry here," he explained. So, I decided to start my own company. Clyde Space has been going gangbusters since inception, growing 100pc last year. It works with organisations all over the world, from MIT to the National University of Singapore. Last year, it turned over of £2m. Not content with supplying other satellite manufacturers, the business is currently working on building its own. UKube-1 will be the first ever satellite to be built in Scotland, launching in March next year. The 4kg cubesat is being packed with cutting edge technology from universities across the country. It features a science experiment from the University of Bath, which will look at space weather's effects on GPS and a camera from the Open University. "It's full of software and electronics, with six systems on board," said Mr Clark. Not bad for something the size of a whisky bottle. Clyde Space dominates the market it operates in, supplying 40pc of the global cubesats industry. "Less than 10pc of our business is in Europe," said Mr Clark. And Britain will become an even more significant player in the space race if plans to build a launch site at Lossiemouth, the RAF base near Aberdeen, are realised. "Virgin Galactic wants to launch people into space from there," said Mr Clark. The ambitions of this engineer turned entrepreneur remain more localised, however. "I'm hoping to attract many more space companies to Scotland," he admitted. If I do one thing, I hope it's to leave a commercial space legacy here. Britain's space smarts are out of this world Unlike Clyde Space, 70pc of Tessella's revenue comes from the UK. "We do a lot of work with the UK defence industry that we cannot sell overseas," said managing director Alan Gaby. Tessella specialises in creating software and analytics for the space sector. The business was founded 32 years ago and is one of the pioneers in big data. Tessella's algorithms will soon be plugged in to the Solar Orbiter mission, due to launch in 2017. By crunching the data fed in by various sensors, Tessella's software will point the craft in the right direction. "A heat shield is built into the front of the space craft to withstand temperatures of +500 degrees centigrade," explained David Whittle, the director who heads up the space division at Tessella. At the back, it'll be -100. If we get the position wrong, we could melt the spacecraft and wreck the mission. The UK space agency posits that downstream technologies, like the software made by Tessella, will generate £37bn in revenue by 2030, up from £8bn today. Tessella's turnover is set to increase at a much faster rate, however. The firm made £21m in revenue last year but is on course to be a £100m-turnover company by 2020. Each one of the firm's 250 staff comes from a science background, and over 50pc have PhDs. "We work in areas where there's a high level of science and complexity," said Mr Gaby. Tessella has two bases, one in Abingdon, and the other in Stevenage, which science minister Mr Willetts has called the UK equivalent of Cape Canaveral. The lure of working in the glamorous space industry has helped Tessella to recruit some of the best brains in the business. ""From when we are kids, it's all about space and dinosaurs," said Mr Whittle. Would you rather work in a bank or somewhere you can make a real contribution to your planet?