Lockheed Martin Commits More Than £100m to North East Space Sector
The package is headlined by a proposed £85m satellite manufacturing facility at NETPark and a technology centre in Newcastle.
- Lockheed Martin plans an £85m satellite manufacturing facility at NETPark.
- The investment is expected to support around 500 high-skill North East jobs a year.
- The NETPark plant is due to begin initial operations by mid-2027.
Lockheed Martin has announced a strategic investment of more than £100m in the UK space sector, centred on the North East.
Two pillars
The investment is headlined by a proposed £85m satellite manufacturing facility at the NETPark science park in County Durham, alongside the launch of a technology centre in Newcastle.
The company expects the investment to support around 2,000 jobs across the national supply chain, including about 500 high-skill jobs a year in the North East, and to add an estimated £1.2bn to the economy over two decades.
Opening doors for smaller firms
Lockheed Martin’s anchor role at the North East Space Skills and Technology Centre is intended to help small and medium-sized businesses plug into its global supply chain.
The NETPark plant is due to begin initial operations by mid-2027. The announcement followed the government’s new national space strategy, which allocated £500m to high-growth space technologies.
