Space Minister Chris Bryant said the decision would result in “much greater integration and focus” while “maintaining the scientific expertise and the immense ambition of the sector.”
Founded in 2010, the organization currently operates as an executive agency of DSIT.
The folding of the agency is part of a push by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Whitehall chief Pat McFadden to review arms-length bodies across government with a view to “rooting out unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication.”
The announcement was published alongside 60 recommendations from industry leaders on how to improve regulation for space missions, which the government said were “key” to unlocking a market estimated to be worth £2.7 billion by 2031.
It added that with the “right support,” the U.K. space industry could capture a quarter of the global market for in-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing.
While the move was praised by several industry leaders, Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith, who was space minister in the previous Conservative government, was quick to criticize the plan. Griffith said he was “concerned,” and would have favored a “more empowered U.K. Space Agency.” The move represented “Whitehall managerialism in the name of efficiencies,” he said.