Space Wars: Satellites, Genocide, and Oxfordshire

Responses to Miliband’s statement, which was very carefully prefixed with a robust establishment of his Jewish and pro-Israel credentials, have included a great deal of commotion about a supposed ‘backlash’ against ‘British Jews’. Many of the more hysterical commentators appear to have listened to only part of what Miliband said. They may have missed his comments on the “shared national security interests we have with Israel, on which we will continue to co-operate”. He reinforced the point later by saying, “I am confident about our intelligence and security partnerships”. Then there was the bit about the supposed cancellation of the sale of F-35 parts to Israel in 2024, which is rendered meaningless by the “provision we make now … indirectly to the global supply programme”, to which Israel has direct access. 

In summary: Miliband has made no attempt to curtail the destructive activities of the state of Israel, he has doubled-down on the relationships forged in the name of ‘shared national security’, he has ripened the conditions for another round of antisemitism alarmism and, on top of all this, he has received direct and unambiguous threats from members of the Israeli Government. With this in mind, does it seem sensible to be in a strategic partnership with the state of Israel?

It is just one small step to return to the subject of space and, specifically, the way in which the United Kingdom’s ‘interests’ are enmeshed with those of Israel. In the pages of the Israel Space Agency‘s website, we read that it “is engaged in cooperation with many space agencies, including … UK Space Agency”. Also, “the space agency initiates events for Israeli and foreign space companies, bringing together investors, foundations, companies, and representatives of governments and agencies”. The King’s opening of The Defence and Space Gateway now assumes a greater significance, especially since “Israel strives to expand and deepen the scope of existing agreements with agencies and states and welcomes any joint venture with countries engaged in space exploration — from the largest space powers to countries taking their first steps in the field – provided that they are dedicated partners”.

Given the remit of the Israel Space Agency to blur the lines between bodies of different natures and the aligned interests of the governments of Israel and the United Kingdom, how does this manifest? The ‘UK Space Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2015/2016’ declared that “On the inward investment side, the UK welcomed significant interest from industries as far afield as the USA, Canada, Israel, Spain and France” and that “As part of our attendance at the International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem, we conducted an inaugural meeting with the Israeli Space Agency which has already led to industrial activity”.

The UK Space Agency’s ‘A guide to UK spaceports‘, which was last updated in 2023, gives the impression of a thriving industry. Whilst that is misleading, to say the least, there is commercial activity which is demonstrated by investment and planned launches. Even by 2026, only Spaceport Cornwall has managed to get anything airborne: a failed attempt to reach orbit by Virgin Orbit in 2023. Still, it holds a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) licence for horizontal launch. The only other spaceport to hold a CAA licence is SaxaVord, in the far north of Shetland. It is planned that this facility will be for vertical launch and first on the pad was supposed to be Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) which, as its name suggests, is not a British enterprise.

In fact, German firm RFA received €30m from KKR for the project. Though an American company, KKR is very heavily invested in Israel and has been linked by commentators to the illegal settlements in the West Bank at the centre of the Miliband row. RFA has had its inaugural launch delayed, which has shifted the focus to the next planned blast-off. HyImpulse, another German company, has raised more than €125m in funding and recent reporting suggests that they may attempt a launch from SaxaVord in October. Of the millions raised, a considerable portion of it comes from Ace Capital, which is an Israeli investment firm. It is one thing for the new Gateway at Harwell to describe itself as “a dedicated hub for the space and defence sectors, driving national and global collaboration between government, academia, innovators and industry” and quite another to imagine the consequences of such collaboration will uphold the spirit of Article 1 of the Outer Space Treaty: “The exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries”.