News

Some of the UK's brightest young engineers will come together this month at the historic site of Britain's Cold War rocket programme for the climax of the world's biggest student rocket firing competition. More than 300 students from 32 universities will gather at the Westcott Enterprise Zone near Aylesbury, Bucks - a thriving hub of the UK space sector - for the final stage of Race2Space, an education initiative supported by the Government’s UK Space Agency. Between June 25 and July 11, teams will ‘hot fire’ (ignite) rocket engines which they have spent the last year designing and building [...]

Six space related start-up businesses have been given a boost thanks to a pioneering new innovation voucher scheme at Westcott. Astron Systems, Naicker Scientific, Coates Electronics, Longbow Space Technologies, SAWiE and Rocket Engineering Limited have all joined the Westcott Launchpad Programme aimed at encouraging start-up, SME and large businesses to carry out testing and R&D to help them establish or expand at Westcott Venture Park in Buckinghamshire. The businesses have been awarded a total of £120,000* after being accepted onto the scheme, which will enable them to receive support and access to a range of industry expertise and facilities [...]

Satellite Applications Catapult have completed upgrades to its Drone Test and Development Centre. Additions include a new 10m drone cage with fixed drone tethers, a new sensor test range and newly built drone development lab offering workshop space. The Drone Test and Development Centre offers a secure environment to test and develop drone products and services, including capabilities that will support Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS), pilot training and remote flight operations. Westcott as a former RAF airfield without general aviation, has multiple open flying areas, no conflicting traffic, and a low residential density, making it an ideal [...]

Westcott based Plastron Immersive, is seeing a return on its investment in training thanks to funding support from Buckinghamshire Growth Board. With initial funding from Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) of £15,000, now managed by the Buckinghamshire Growth Board following the transition of the LEP into Buckinghamshire Council last year, Plastron is going from strength to strength in the delivery of space skills provision. This progress has resulted in Plastron - in partnership with the Space Skills Alliance, Lat51 Space Systems Ltd, European Astrotech Ltd, Plymouth & South Devon Freeport, and JMA Projects Ltd - being selected by the [...]

A Buckinghamshire-based SME is playing a crucial role in the upcoming launch of a pioneering international climate satellite. A team from European Astrotech, based at Westcott, has returned from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, where they successfully completed the delicate process of fuelling the Biomass satellite ahead of its scheduled launch on April 29th aboard an Arianespace Vega-C rocket. Biomass is the first UK-conceived climate satellite to have also been built in the UK, with Airbus Defence and Space appointed as prime contractor. Led by the European Space Agency (ESA) under its Earth Explorer programme, the mission is [...]

Silverstone Enterprise Zone occupier Lunaz has reported a huge surge in demand for its electrified classic cars in Europe, the USA and Middle East. Orders for its electrified models such as Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar, Range Rover and Rolls-Royce models destined for international markets – including the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, France, Monaco and India – have increased by 150% year-on-year. Meanwhile, 35% of the order book, extending to 2026, will remain in the company’s home market, the United Kingdom. Furthermore, Lunaz has confirmed that since the start of the current production period in May 2024, it has [...]

The Digital Manufacturing Centre (DMC), an industry-leading production facility and additive manufacturing (AM) innovation hub, hosted the latest UK MOD Strategic Command’s Additive Manufacturing innovation event, on 5 March 2025. This MOD/industry collaborative event was held at DMC’s state-of-the-art AM production facility, located at the world-renowned Silverstone Park. The event was also supported by the Buckinghamshire Enterprise Zone.   Project TAMPA is a UK Strategic Command Defence Support sponsored project that is exploring the advantages of integrating the very latest AM (3D-printing) technology “from factory to foxhole”. From the outset, DMC has been intimately involved with Project TAMPA and [...]

A Drone Test and Development Centre (DTDC), launched in 2023 at Westcott Venture Park in Buckinghamshire by partner organisation Satellite Applications Catapult, is undergoing a major upgrade to its facilities to increase its capacity and capabilities.  Drone companies will now be able to test their products and solutions at a much earlier stage in the development process in a safe and controlled environment.  The DTDC received £1.4million in funding from Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), now managed by the Buckinghamshire Growth Board following the transition of the LEP into Buckinghamshire Council last year.  The DTDC is upgrading to service [...]

Silverstone Enterprise Zone business occupiers featured in a Sky TV programme focusing on innovation and collaboration on Sunday 9 February. ‘Building an Innovation Hub’ aired on Sky channel 588 and will be repeated on Sunday 2 March (part of the channel’s ‘business hour’). The 20-minute programme dives into how innovation in engineering helps various sectors across the UK thrive and flourish and how collaboration is key. Silverstone Enterprise Zone (part of Silverstone Park) boasts a global reputation in the fields of advanced engineering and technology and serves as an unrivalled hub of expertise for innovation. Amongst those interviewed are [...]