Durham space company opens UK's first Orbital Analyst centre

The UK’s only Orbital Analyst centre has been opened by a space company in Durham.

Northern Space and Security Ltd (NORSS), a specialist space awareness and surveillance company, has opened the centre following support from Business Durham.

Since its inception NORSS has been supported by Business Durham through the North East Satellite Applications Centre of Excellence, based at NETPark in Sedgefield, which has provided funding, advice, networking and opportunities to attend events.

The NORSS Orbital Analyst Hive (NOAH) at Aykley Heads Business Centre, will work to identify, track and monitor the behaviour of objects in space.

Ralph Dinsley, founder and executive director of NORSS, commented: “We’re incredibly grateful to Business Durham for its support through the North East Satellite Applications Centre of Excellence over the last three years, if we hadn’t received the grant from the UK Space Agency through the Centre then we wouldn’t be where we are today.

“The funding I received enabled me to grow the company which resulted in me taking on business partners, employing staff and expanding from one office to three.

“The advice and support from the Centre and Business Durham has been phenomenal, and it has been really exciting to help bring space to the North East.

“We’re thrilled to have opened the UK’s first only Orbital Analyst centre in Durham and are looking forward to providing technical support to the UK Space Agency and to the commercial space sector. This is a fantastic opportunity and will allow us to continue working on the identification, tracking and behaviour of objects in space.

“We’ll also be increasing our workforce, as well as providing a Data Analyst apprenticeship for someone who shares our enthusiasm about space. We’re really excited about supporting and developing a young person’s career to help the North East space sector to grow and can’t wait to see what the future holds.”

Sarah Slaven, interim managing director of Business Durham, said: “We’re delighted to see NORSS open the UK’s only Orbital Analyst centre in Durham. It reflects the growing number of companies, specialist knowledge and skills in the space sector in the region.

“The company has been involved with the North East Satellite Applications Centre of Excellence at NETPark for several years and it’s fantastic to see them creating new jobs and collaborating with other space and technology companies in the region, nationally and beyond.

“The space sector in the North East has been growing over recent years. We look forward to supporting and attracting more innovations and companies such as this.”