A recent BBC feature has put the spotlight on Glasgow’s remarkable development as a centre for small satellite manufacturing, and the opportunity now facing Scotland as competition and investment in the European space sector continue to increase.

For Barum & Dewar, it is a story that feels particularly close to home. With our roots in Scotland and more than 25 years working with businesses across the global space sector, we have seen first-hand how Scotland’s capabilities have developed and how a wider network of specialist businesses has grown around them.

Glasgow is now recognised as a European leader in small satellite manufacturing. Companies including AAC Clyde Space have played an important role in that development, helping establish an industry that combines engineering expertise, research, technology and an increasingly experienced supply chain.

B&D is proud to have supported businesses within this ecosystem, including AAC Clyde Space, while our involvement in the sector extends across the UK and internationally. We design and supply protective packaging for flight hardware and ground support equipment, with solutions ranging from smaller specialist cases through to large bespoke containers designed around complex and highly valuable payloads.

That experience has also shown us that a successful space industry depends on much more than the spacecraft itself.

Behind every satellite, component or propulsion system is a network of organisations responsible for designing, manufacturing, testing, handling, transporting and protecting that equipment. Each has its own role in ensuring hardware reaches the next stage of its journey in the condition required.

For protective packaging, that can mean understanding far more than the dimensions and weight of a piece of equipment. How will it be handled? How many times will it travel? What environmental conditions could it encounter? Does it need protection from shock, vibration, moisture or contamination? How will operators access it, inspect it or remove it from its container? What happens to the packaging after the first journey?

These considerations become particularly important in the space sector, where equipment can represent years of development and significant investment, and where there is little margin for error.

B&D’s approach is therefore to work closely with customers from the outset, understanding the complete journey of the equipment before developing the protective solution around it. Our cases and containers have travelled to launch sites around the world, with some undertaking multiple missions and being refurbished or reconfigured for future use.

As Scotland looks to build on its success in space, maintaining the depth of capability around its manufacturers will be important. The strength of the sector lies not only in the businesses designing and building spacecraft, but in the engineering, technology, research and specialist supply-chain expertise that allows them to operate successfully on an international stage.

Having joined Space Scotland in 2022, B&D is proud to be part of that community and to contribute specialist expertise developed through more than two decades supporting demanding space programmes.

The story of Scotland’s growing space sector is rightly attracting attention. The opportunity now is to continue strengthening the complete ecosystem behind it, ensuring that the expertise developed here can support the next generation of missions from Scotland, the UK and around the world.