New space manufacturing company opens in city

There will be apprenticeships and PhD support at the new facility in Hardwicke

A new company that manufactures parts for the space industry has opened a new factory in Gloucester.

The automated production facility was opened by iCOMAT in Hardwicke on Monday after receiving £4.8m in funding from the UK Space Agency.

iCOMAT, which has increased its numbers of employees from 20 to 70 in the last year, expects to double its Gloucester workforce in the next year and generate 2,000 jobs over the next decade.

The company said it hopes to "revolutionise" lightweight space structures, with its founder Evangelos Zympeloudis adding carbon fibre is the "lightest, strongest engineering material" and should be in "every aeroplane, every car, every rocket".

A total of £8.2m, including £3.3m in match funding, had been donated to the facility.

Although it is primarily focused on serving the space industry, iCOMAT said it plans to serve the aerospace and automotive industries, too.

"Many years down the line, this will be recognised as technology that can truly industrialise composites," Mr Zympeloudis said.

iCOMAT, founded by Evangelos Zympeloudis, hopes to "revolutionise" the use of carbon fibre in the space industry

Matthew Archer, director of launch and in orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing at the UK Space Agency, said, in addition to creating 2,000 engineer opportunities at the facility near Gloucester, there should also be "about 150 apprenticeships and a number of PhD support as well".

"For the UK, the space sector's worth about £18.5bn a year," Mr Archer said.

"It's growing at about four to five per cent a year so it's really important and a contributor to our economy that says we want to invest in these facilities to make sure we can not only service that demand for the future but generate that income and high paid roles for the future."