Value of North East Space Conference to the region is out of this world says innovative business leader
- catherinegordon8
- Jul 1
- 3 min read
A Northumberland businessman whose company plans to clear space debris from the skies has praised the annual North East Space Conference for its importance in boosting the sector in the region.
Ralph Dinsley, who runs 3S Northumbria, was a speaker at the Conference discussing the topic of Sustainability in Space.
And he says the Conference, driven by Space North East England, is playing a vital role in helping grow a sector which already directly employs more than 1,000 people in the region and is set to employ thousands more in the next few years.
Ralph said: “It’s significant in raising the profile of the North East and attracting investment - previous years have shown that.
“And this year we had more than 300 people coming along sharing the goal of growing the region’s experience and expertise to support space work in the UK and beyond.”
For the Alnwick-based space expert, the key is the collaboration that exists in the North East space cluster, the keenness to grow and the natural advantage that the region has for developing the space sector.
Ralph was an air defence specialist in the RAF before leaving in 2017 and founding Northern Space and Security Limited (NORSS), which was headquartered in Alnwick before it was acquired by Raytheon UK in 2022.
Now he has launched 3S Northumbria Ltd, which is focusing on the development of a sustainable and circular economy in space to tackle the increasingly pressing issue of hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris in the atmosphere.
He says it is an exciting time for his company, as it is for so many others working in space:
“We’ve gone through rapid growth, from one to 10 employees in under 12 months, and now we’re stabilising and bringing in more work and competing for major government contracts with plans to expand.
“That will allow us to fund our own internal research and development, supporting missions like on-orbit recycling and pushing the boundaries.”
His company, though, is benefiting from being in the North East and the ability to tap into the skills and expertise, which includes all five local universities.
“We have something valuable here that we can often overlook—universities, engineers, scientists and some natural advantages when it comes to space in the region.
We currently work with Durham University and Northumbria University, but now with a bigger team, I plan to connect with all Northern universities. We’ll grow our R&D observatories, working with the Ministry of Defence and place tracking equipment at RAF bases, but this isn’t just about internal R&D—it’s working with local universities and national collaborators.
“Space awareness is so big, it takes teamwork, but that also helps build our recruitment pipeline, and this is where growing the space cluster in the North East has been so vital. We’re currently working on a post-A-level apprenticeship programme to train people in orbital analytics with Northumbria University, so that we’re developing those skills on our doorsteps.
“And the Conference kind of helps to bring everything all together once a year, so that people can hear what’s happening elsewhere in the industry, can network, share best practice and hopefully make the North East an increasingly important player in the world of space.
“There’s so much potential here and we’re lucky to have organisations like Space North East England and the UK Space Agency helping drive things forward.”
