Lockheed Martin’s A2100 satellite. Photo: Lockheed Martin

[Via Satellite 07-16-2014] Inspired by the United Kingdom’s push to grow its space industry, Lockheed Martin has opened a new office at the U.K. Space Gateway in Harwell, Oxford. The company intends to pursue business opportunities in global security, small communications satellites, space exploration and environmental monitoring.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems reports that it met with more than 30 different space industry actors — businesses, universities and government agencies — on a tour that visited Harwell, Oxford and the Institution of Engineering and Technology in Glasgow, Scotland.

The U.K Space Agency has set a goal of driving the U.K. to capture 10 percent of the global space market. Recently the agency released eight possible locations for a U.K. spaceport, six of which are in Scotland, one in England and one in Wales. The U.K. hopes to have an operational domestic spaceport by 2018.