The Harwell Campus-based company Oxford Space Systems last week (10 April) won a prestigious NASA competition at the Space Symposium in Colorado, USA.
Its CEO, Mike Lawton, successfully-pitched to a judging panel of senior NASA officials, investors and space industry executives in NASA’s ‘iTech Ignite the Night’ competition – a competition that aims to help NASA find technologies that can save costs and shape the future of space exploration.
OSS have now become one of just 25 semi-finalists where – if they progress through the next round – would go forward as one of the top-10 finalists to pitch at the 2019 NASA iTech Cycle Forum in Pasadena, California in July.
OSS are one of the leading companies based at Harwell Campus, home to the largest cluster of space-related companies anywhere in western Europe.
In addition, space and satellites is one of four transformative technologies recognised in the 2017 Oxfordshire Transformative Technology Alliance's science and innovation audit – which, if fully-utilised, could be worth in the region of £180billion to the UK by 2030, around six per cent of the global economy in these technologies.
The audit identified space and satellites – alongside quantum computers, autonomous vehicles and digital health – as key strengths of Oxfordshire’s science and innovation ‘ecosystem’.
OSS was one of only two European companies selected by NASA to pitch in Colorado, the other being Klepsydra Robotics, who are based in Switzerland.
Pictured: Mike Lawton (centre) of Oxford Space Systems a NASA iTech award
