# **ANNUAL REPORT** 2023 - 2024
Chair: Holly Whitehouse Prepared by: Anna Kalapurakkal, Yash Kumar, Tanjin Huda and Holly Whitehouse
## **Thousands of students.**
**Dozens of universities. One vision. W E A R E**
Events & Competitions Resources & Networking
Jobs & Opportunities
ukseds.org
Scan or Click.
## **Contents**
**4**
UKSEDS Team
**6**
Events and Outreach
**7**
Competitions
**13**
Diversity and Advocacy
**14**
Membership
**18**
Marketing
**20**
Finances
## UKSEDS TEAM
We are a registered charity, no. 1182239.
Our charitable objects are to advance education for the public benefit, by providing a forum for the communication and exchange of ideas between students, educational establishments, industry, and the general public; and to act as a resource for young people in the UK with an active interest in space by providing advice and assistance to improve their knowledge base, skillsets, and hands-on experience.
Our Trustees and Executive Committee are elected by the Membership in accordance with our Constitution, and plan our activities with regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit, our Objects, and our long term strategy.
## **Executive Committee (05/03/2023-03/03/2024)**
Holly Whitehouse _Chair_
Isaac Caletrío _Vice-Chair_
Divyanshi Gupta _At-Large_
Yash Kumar _Treasurer_
Ahlam Abdi _At-Large_
Raniah Ahmed _Secetary_
## **Executive Committee (03/03/2024-02/03/2025)**
- Raniah Ahmed (Chair)
- Divyanshi Gupta (Vice-Chair) Tanjin Huda (Treasurer)
- Mohamed Ali (Secretary) Lamyea Ahmed (At-Large) Anna Kalapurakkal (At-Large)
## **External Trustees**
- Andrew Bacon, Co-Founder and Chief Designer, Space Forge Jeremy Ambrose, Startup Partnerships Manager, Zendesk
- Matjaz Viadmar, Lecturer in Engineering Management, University of Edinburgh Nick Shave, Managing Director, Astroscale UK & Europe
- Jacob Geer, Chief of Staff, UK Space Agency
- Katherine Courtney, Chair, Global Network on Sustainability in Space (GNOSIS)
**4**
## **Management Team (2023/2024)**
Anna Kalapurakkal Nick McKenna _External Internal Communications & Communic ations & Operations Manager Operations Manager_
Michelle Chimwanda _Project Facilitation Manager_
Lauren Young _Volunteer Welfare & Development Representative_
## **Team Leads (2023/2024)**
- Erikas Kymantas (Events & Outreach) Tanjin Huda (Competitions) Diversity & Advocacy (Hiring now!) Sanmukh Khadtare (Membership) Srinidhi Dantu (Marketing) Rafal Zacher (Systems)
## **Volunteers (2023/2024)**
- Aamir Sarpal James Hollingdale Aarini Devasar Joel Cabrera Adi Dhillon Josh Finn Ahlam Abdi Kaleb Mead Ali Haider Kariavi Pandit Amelia Pua Lamyea Ahmed Anna Kalapurakkal Lauren Lewis Avanthika Gayatriravi Lauren Young Ayham Alhag Lee Ellis Beth Westoby Leo Turner David Reid Louise Weightman David Sulley Maria Olender Divyanshi Gupta Maryam Latief Eoin Samuels Matt Godfrey Erikas Kymantas Mel Brooks Eva Haidar Michael Senior Fiyinfoluwa Owolabi Michelle Chimwanda Geethanjali Gopinath Mohammed Ali Georgia Casburn Mohammed Deera Holly Whitehouse Mya White Isaac Caletrío Nicholas McKenna Isabel Kerr Oliver Lee Jacob Sims Petras Verseckas
- Rachel Diamond Rafal Zacher Raniah Ahmed Robert MacLeod Samhita Manukoda Sanmukh Khadtare Sara Lai Seb Ruvinsky Shreenidhi Srinath Shresth Shrivastava Simran Dhanraj Srinidhi Dantu Sushmita Ramanujam Talha Baig Tanjin Huda Toby Simpson Tom Snelling Vanshika Gupta Vishalya Kontham Yannis Papaioannou Yash Kumar
- Yoga Barrathwaj Raman Mohan
We would like to extend the biggest thank you to all of our incredible volunteers for their immense efforts and hard work this year. Your passion and dedication towards the space industry, and towards helping other space enthusiasts despite all of your other commitments keeping you extremely busy, is what makes UKSEDS what it is today.
## **EVENTS AND OUTREACH**
**Team Lead: Erikas Kymantas Vice Team Lead: Aarini Devasar**
**Events Manager: Yoga Barrathwaj Raman Mohan Events Coordinators: Anna Kalapurakkal, Maryam Latief Outreach Coordinators: Eoin Samuels, Fiyinfoluwa Owolabi**
This year has seen a key evolution in the structure of the Events Team and Outreach Team, with both teams merging for increased efficiency in their operations, combining both of their resources and expertise. The majority of the year has been dedicated to rebuilding and restructuring the team, where new members have contributed to the overall growth of the team. Events activities focused on aiding other UKSEDS teams in the planning and organisation of their events, such as the Membership Team’s Cluster Events, and the Diversity and Advocacy Team’s Diversity in Space Careers conference (DiSC). Outreach activities focused on engaging with children in schools and the general public, with the goal of increasing space knowledge amongst them, providing inspiration, and making space more accessible.
One of the key achievements this year has been the initial design of the UKSEDS Satellite Workshop for schools across the country. This initiative has seen extensive knowledge and unique concepts come together to form what will be an exceedingly valuable project for children across all age groups in the UK. The team hope to inspire the next generation of space enthusiasts through this interactive satellite workshop. Teaching them about a piece of technology that plays vital roles across our everyday lives, and lies at the centre of many groundbreaking discoveries and advancements, is the perfect way to introduce them to the wonders and possibilities of space.
## **UKSEDS Satellite Workshop**
The upcoming year will be a busy one for the team with the launch of the UKSEDS Satellite Workshop, as well as helping in the organisation and operation of the Cluster Events and DiSC. The team will also be working on a project to engage sixth-form and college-age students, directed towards university and career perspectives. Key focuses will also be to consolidate and standardise the UKSEDS approach to events and outreach activities, increase collaboration with other UKSEDS teams and branches, and re-evaluate what the team can offer across the wider space community.
**6**
## **COMPETITIONS**
## **Team Lead: Tanjin Huda Vice Team Lead: David Reid**
The 2023/24 season was the biggest yet for the UKSEDS competition teams, marked by several notable developments. We have seen a significant increase in interest and participation, with a record number of teams registering to take part in each competition. With a new IOSM team, a UKSEDS Mach volunteers team, a new ORT stream, a new rocketry development program, as well as new faces in management, the team are heading for their strongest year yet.
Additionally, competitions attracted new and returning industry sponsors, bringing resources, expertise, and opportunities for participants, helping them to build connections with potential employers. Learning opportunities through our newly established training programs have been introduced to enhance the value proposition of the competitions, providing participants with valuable skills and experiences. Combined with new challenges, this pushes participants to ever greater heights. Furthermore, the competitions have attracted new volunteers, providing fresh ideas and perspectives, improving the management, execution, and impact of each competition. The continuing successes of the UKSEDS competition teams are entirely attributed to the hard work and dedication of all volunteers.
At UKSEDS, we currently run 5 competitions, on rover design, satellite design, in-orbit servicing and manufacturing, and both mid-powered and high-powered rocketry. Each year, our competitions launch in October. Although the requirements for each competition differ, they all aim to emulate industry practice, providing rules and requirements to underpin research, design, and build activities. Each competition concludes with students presenting their work at in-person competition events in the summer.
Competing teams are given industry mentors, who support the development of their designs and provide insight and advice about working in the space industry. We also offer opportunities for training in skills valuable to industry: project management, systems engineering, and microcontroller programming, as well as the chance to undertake outreach activities.
Our competitions aim to provide students with the key technical and soft skills for a career in space, as well as a direct connection to the industry through the support of advisors, sponsors, and supporters, including Airbus, Inmarsat, Skyrora, RAL Space, and more.
**7**
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## **Olympus Rover Trials (ORT)**
“Over the last few years the ORT competition has gone from strength to strength, this year doubling the number of people able to bring their rovers to compete on the final day. We cannot wait to continue building on this competition and bring more value to students throughout the UK.” - Josh Finn
## **Team Lead: Josh Finn**
## **Aamir Sarpal, Geethanjali Gopinath, Jacob Sims, Oliver Lee, Talha Baig**
Due to the success of the Olympus Rover Trials competition over the past few years, this year the competition has been upgraded to have 2 streams: the basic stream and the advanced stream. The briefs for each stream vary from one another, though the basic rules are similar. ORT continues to be sponsored by Airbus and RAL Space, mainly through provision of competition venues, Mars yards, and vibration test beds. In both streams, the rover is not to exceed a mass of 5 kg, and teams all have 30 minutes to execute their missions. Their entries are subjected to vibrational loads simulating launch in each streams the 2nd day.
In the basic stream, taking place wholly onsite at RAL Space, teams are tasked with performing a vital cargo operations mission: collecting and transporting cargo following delivery from orbit by a Large Logistics Lander (L3) to sites within 5 km of the Logistics Depot. Other responsibilities include returning spent or produced cargo from these sites back to the depot for repair, reuse, or delivery back to orbit.
The advanced stream takes place at Airbus Defence and Space, with teams being tasked with delivering a rover with a drill-type arm component to perform scientific operations. The objective is to get the ‘drill tip’ as close to the centre of sampling location as possible, demonstrating the rovers’ capabilities of precise control of the robotic arm even in suboptimal lighting conditions.
After an extremely successful Mars Yard test, and despite losing a few bolts in vibration testing, our overall winners last year were Bath Team Roving. A special mention to Team Kings (KCL) for winning Best Autonomy, RACE Rover (UKAEA) for winning Best Innovation, and CranSEDS for having the Best CDR.
This year was once again recording-breaking with over 35 teams entering the competition. With 15 of them making it past the PDR phase, we are excited to see so many high quality entries and look forward to our competition weekends in the summer.
## **National Rocketry Championship (NRC)**
“I'm really excited for this year's competition. With it being our 10th year and over 50 participating teams, its gearing up to be our best yet. Moreover, I'm delighted that we are having our first ever in-person launch day in June which would not be possible without the generous support of Skyrora and the United Kingdom Rocketry Association. I cannot wait for a summer packed full of fun!” - Tom Snelling
## **Team Lead: Tom Snelling**
## **Lamyea Ahmed (Vice Team Lead), Mohammed Ali, Yannis Papaioannou**
The National Rocketry Championship is in its 10th year in the current format, making it our oldest competition. It has grown significantly over the years, with a record number of 48 teams of up to 15 students applying to enter last year. This year, we have increased that number again to over 50 teams registering at the start of the competition in October.
The aims of the competition are to challenge students to perform complex engineering tasks, provide them with hands-on experience, allow them to develop new technical skills, and give them some insight into propulsion as a potential career.
The mission of the competition this year is for students to design and build a mid-power rocket using a 2-grain 29 mm Cesaroni or Aerotech motor and achieve a target altitude of 1500 ft, carrying a minimum payload of 200 g. The competition consists of 2 phases: design and launch. In the design phase, the teams research and then write a report (DBR) that justifies their design choices and demonstrates that their rocket is safe to fly.
In the launch phase, students build and launch their rocket. In the past, this has been at any of the amateur rocketry clubs across the country. This year, with thanks to our new silver sponsor Skyrora, we have our first in-person Launch Day at Midlands Rocketry Club in early June, where all the teams will launch on the same day. We are actively looking for more companies to join us for our sponsors exhibition. The United Kingdom Rocketry Association continues to support NRC, acting in an advisory role on the safety and legal side of the teams’ designs. Following the success of last year, the mentor system has also been continued for this 23/24 cycle.
Thank you to Progressive Technology and the United Kingdom Rocketry Association for their support last year as well, and a massive congratulations to last year's winners, UCL Rocket (right). Good luck to all of our teams for their forthcoming DBRs and eventual launches!
## **Satellite Design Competition (SDC)**
“I find immense joy witnessing the competing teams unite on the final competition day, their culmination of efforts evident in the quality of CubeSats that we see. It's a testament to their innovation, teamwork, and unwavering commitment. It blows me away each year and I expect this year will be much the same!” - Lee Shauffer-Ellis
## **Team Lead: Lee Shauffer-Ellis**
## **David Sulley, Joel Cabrera, Mohammed Deera, Tanjin Huda, Vishalya Kontham**
Our 7th instalment of the Satellite Design Competition, sponsored by SSPI, AIRBUS, Oxford Space Systems, and Inmarsat, will be the 3rd year that the competition has held an in-person competition day. Each year, the competition places its focus on a topic that has growing relevance to the space industry and wider world. In this regard, we have therefore set this year’s focus on wildfires and how CubeSats can be used as an early detection and warning system.
Teams are currently working hard developing their design for the Critical Design Review (CDR) Report, and will be looking to test their CubeSats during the final competition day in July to crown our winner of SDC 2024.
For the previous year’s competition, the event was held for the first time at AIRBUS’ facilities in Stevenage, where we had the biggest competition day to date. This involved 5 teams coming together to test their CubeSats in the mystery room challenge (below right). After rigorous testing, the team from the University of Surrey, Peryton (below left), were crowned the overall winners.
A special mention to the other teams: Team Condor (CranSEDS) who won Best CDR, INRoS from the University of Nottingham who won Best Presentation, and the team from DSTL who won Best Innovation. Designing a CubeSat is a huge challenge, but all teams acquitted themselves extremely well and managed to develop some fantastic CubeSats.
A big thank you to all of our sponsors last year, and good luck to all of our teams in the next phases of the competitions!
## **In-Orbit Servicing & Manufacturing Competition (IOSM)**
“The breadth and creativity of ideas in tacking the next frontier of space challenges is staggering. I am looking forward to the exciting presentations and demonstrations by the students in our very own Dragons Den Competiton!” - Shresth Shrivastava
## **Team Lead: Shresth Shrivastava**
## **Ali Haider**
In-Orbit Servicing and Manufacturing (IOSM) is now in its 3rd year. The competition challenges interdisciplinary teams of 5-12 students to design and pitch a business in the emerging field of IOSM, with a focus on technical and commercial aspects such as space-based solar power, pharmaceuticals, active debris removal, and microgravity manufacturing. This year, the competition has attracted support from IOSM focused organisations: Astroscale, SpaceForge, Airbus, LMO, and ClearSpace.
The competition aims to give students exposure to various topics in the space industry and develop industry-relevant skills in mission design, engineering, business development, project management, and more. This year's competition will see teams compete in 3 challenges: familiarisation with IOSM and the market, a business proposal covering commercial and technical aspects, culminating with a pitch of their ideas in a Dragons' Den scenario. The competition provides a stepping stone into the IOSM field and a valuable experience for students' future aspirations.
The 2022/23 IOSM competition saw 4 teams from around the UK register, and eventually 3 teams develop and pitch IOSM businesses to industry experts, attracting students from various academic disciplines such as aerospace engineering, mathematics, and physics. The competition enjoyed high engagement from industry partners, allowing for a successful Dragons’ Den event hosted at the Space Application Catapult’s IOSM facility. CranSEDS won the competition, with the team from BristolSEDS coming in 2nd place. Thank you to our main partner last year, Satellite Applications Catapult, and our further supporters Astroscale, SpaceForge, D-Orbit, ClearSpace, LMO, UKSA, and Frazer Nash.
This year’s competition saw a new volunteer team take over running the competition, and 5 teams from around the UK register to take part. We have 3 teams continuing to develop their business ideas, ahead of pitching later in the year. We wish them luck in their endeavours!
## **Mach-24 Launch Competition & Conference**
“It is impressive to see the dedication and hard work that participants put into the Mach competition. Year by year, the designs build up on previous year’s, enhancing the skills and creativity of the students. Looking forward to see the final work of this year’s teams!” - Sara Lai
## **Team Lead: Sara Lai**
## **James Hollingdale, Kaleb Mead, Robert MacLeod**
We are partnering with Discover Space UK to organise the Mach-24 Launch Competition and Conference. The Mach-X competition is in its 4th year and is bigger than ever. The team running the competitions has expanded to include a handful of UKSEDS volunteers, alongside Exotopic and Machrihanish Airbase Community Company, with all of the competition sponsors also supporting.
Last year we had 14 teams register, with 11 launches, and we have nearly doubled this number for the coming competition, with 22 teams registering interest. Building on the success of last year, the competition has 3 entry categories: CanSat only, Combined Entry 1.5 km to 3 km, and a Rocketry Challenge category, encouraging innovation in design and complex payloads.
Held at Machrihanish Airbase in Scotland, the launch event taking place in July allows the teams to participate in hands-on space skills workshops and attend seminars on health and safety and launch regulations, while engaging in outreach activities that involve the local community and networking with members of the UK space industry. In 2023, the Spaceport was opened to 300+ members of the public who engaged with the competition participants and in space-themed family friendly activities.
A big congratulations to the Mach-23 Categories 2 and 3 winners, and the Outreach, Best PFR, and Most Original Design winners. A special mention to all of the participants of the Mach competitions for the immense work and effort they put into them.
Over 20 teams have submitted a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for Mach-24, which are in the process of being marked. We wish all of the teams well for their builds and further reports, and look forward to seeing them all launch successfully in July.
## **DIVERSITY AND ADVOCACY**
## **Team Lead: Mel Brooks (until February 2024)**
## **Anjali Santhkumar, Eva Haidar, Joel Cabrera, Mel Brooks, Mya White**
The current projects of the Diversity and Advocacy Team are all championing key areas that the team believe require increased focus in the way UKSEDS operates. These include Women in Space, Neurodiversity, and Accessible Technologies. The Women in Space project explores ways to increase awareness within student societies through a campaign to recruit more women into UKSEDS, as well as women-centric societies at universities. The second area of focus relates to making UKSEDS more accessible to neurodiverse individuals by having the necessary support and adjustments in place. Ensuring the availability of a separate quiet room at the National Student Space Conference (NSSC) this year is one of the ways in which the team have put this into action. A key initiative within the Accessible Technologies area is making captions a requisite at all UKSEDS presentations and panels. The team are also currently working on making text-to-speech options available for UKSEDS documents.
Diversity in Space Careers (DiSC) is a one-day conference run by the team, championing equality, diversity, and inclusion in the space sector. The conference sees a wide range of academic and industry professionals within the sector conducting a series of talks and panel discussions, providing insight into their work, research, and experiences in overcoming personal barriers.
This year, DiSC will be returning on April 5th at Kings College London, hosted in collaboration with KCL Space. The team have a fantastic line-up of speakers and panellists, covering different topics within the team’s key areas of focus. More details will be published on our social media platforms soon.
In the upcoming year, the team will be creating and establishing training across the board focusing on ways to increase awareness, better accommodate everyone, enhance accessibility, and be more inclusive as an organisation. A process will be established to certify volunteers, with the goal of making this certification a prerequisite for being an Accessibility Mentor within UKSEDS in the near future. As more objectives are achieved, more projects will be added for the continual development of the team’s impact.
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## **MEMBERSHIP**
**Team Lead: Sanmukh Khadtare Vice Team Lead: Avanthika Gayatriravi**
**Regional Coordinators: Ayham Alhag, Isabel Kerr, Joel Cabrera, Michael Senior MentorPad: Talha Baig, Toby Simpson Alumni Network: Leo Turner, Matt Godfrey, Sushmita Ramanujam**
Once again, the UKSEDS Membership Team have achieved significant milestones, significantly extending UKSEDS' influence in the space sector and among students. The team's efforts this year to enhance collaboration, engagement, and communication have yielded impressive results, with 45 active UKSEDS branches.
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1700 68
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68 45
MEMBERS VOLUNTEERS BRANCHES
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This year, Cluster Events were launched in 4 regions across the UK, engaging not only branches and space companies, but also various government organisations and local space clusters. This collaborative effort enables us to fulfil our mission of sharing knowledge and raising awareness of developments within the space sector, thereby encouraging students to pursue careers and establish networks within the UK space industry. Furthermore, there has been successful initiation of 2 additional projects within the team: MentorPad and the Alumni Network. Both initiatives aim to cultivate connections and forge relationships among alumni, members, and external organisations, facilitating the exchange of opportunities, resources, and knowledge through our UKSEDS Community Hub.
The UKSEDS Community Hub is an open platform built for UKSEDS to access resources and share information with the wider community. It is a collaborative project between the Systems Team and Membership Team.
The commitment to bolster our relationships with branches by providing ongoing support and guidance through our dedicated team of Regional Coordinators remains as strong as ever. In the coming months, the team intend to expand, engage in outreach projects to schools, and launch several other initiatives to broaden the scope and objectives of the team.
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## **UKSEDS CLUSTER EVENTS**
Following its immense success last year, this year sees the return of the Membership Team’s most ambitious project, the Cluster Events. These will be hosted in person between March 18th29th this year at University College London, University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), University of Nottingham, and University of Edinburgh.
These events are aimed at spreading knowledge and awareness of the developments within the space sector and further encouraging students to take up careers within the UK space industry. They achieve this by incorporating a range of activities, such as talks by academia and industry experts, panel discussions, networking events, and interactive workshops.
Attracting
## **students 500+**
## **branches companies 40+ 30+**
alongside space clusters and public organisations, this will continue to have an incredible impact across the UK.
Find out more and get your tickets here:
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## **UKSEDS MENTORPAD**
The MentorPad project was established to provide guidance to the wider space community about any topic relevant to space by connecting with professional/student mentors. The mentors are UKSEDS volunteers coming from industry and academia who are passionate about space, science, and engineering. They have diverse academic and industrial knowledge, and are eager to share their expertise.
## **Key Areas of Mentor Specialization**
- Engineering
- Physics & Astronomy Biology
- Mathematics
- Arts Space Policy And More...
Mentors can also provide guidance with:
- Academic Writing CV Building Research (Potential Internships and PhDs)
Sessions typically last up to 2 hours, providing mentees with valuable one-on-one guidance. Meetings and sessions are organised through Google Calendar and Google Workspace, ensuring a seamless and efficient process, and conducted using Google Meet. Mentors can be messaged directly on Google Workspace.
MentorPad is currently implemented within the UKSEDS community only, but the team plan to expand the project on a wider scale, connecting external organisations and communities in the near future.
Access the MentorPad portal here:
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UKSEDS
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## **ALUMNI NETWORK**
The Alumni Network aims to create a gateway to a thriving network of like-minded professionals, dedicated to shaping the future of space, science, and engineering. It provides a platform of endless inspiration.
## **Network and Collaborate**
Connect with fellow alumni, members, and industry professionals for exciting collaborations and projects.
## **Showcase Your Work**
Publicise your research, innovations, and achievements to a wider audience passionate about space, science, and engineering.
## **Recruit New Talent**
Offer internships, work experience, and job opportunities to the next generation of space enthusiasts.
## **Mentor Future Leaders**
Share your expertise, guide aspiring engineers, scientists, and researchers, and make a lasting impact on their careers.
## **Enjoy Social Opportunities**
Attend exclusive alumni events, including our annual alumni dinner at NSSC, fostering a sense of community.
Find out more here:
Register as an alumni:
Provide your ideas:
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## **MARKETING**
**Team Lead: Srinidhi Dantu Vice Team Lead: Amelia Pua**
## **Social Media Team: Adi Dhillon, Lauren Lewis, Rachel Diamond, Samhita Manukoda, Shreenidhi Sri nath Podcast Team: Isaac Caletrio, Louise Weightman, Maria Olender, Seb Ruvinsky, Simran Dhanraj Ecliptic Team: Beth Westoby, Georgia Casburn, Kariavi Pandit, Vanshika Gupta**
The Marketing Team have seen the addition of several new volunteers this year, making it one of our biggest teams. The team have been busy working on NSSC marketing since November, and designed a new brand kit for NSSC. New initiatives within UKSEDS, such as Cluster Events and MentorPad, have all had input from the team through logo designs and social media marketing.
As a result of the development of the team’s enhanced marketing strategy, UKSEDS’ social media platforms have continued to expand in reach and engagement over the past year, with an increase in followers and post impressions across all platforms. This is a reflection of UKSEDS’ growth within the space sector, the continually increasing number of students and young professionals we inspire and support, and our impact being bigger than ever.
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19,104 143% 17, 385 25%
New Impressions Increase in Impressions New Impressions Increase in Reach
230 209 134 35%
New Followers Unique Profile Visits New Followers Increase in Engagement
All figures correct at time of printing for preceding 90 days.
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Preparing for Launch, our space careers podcast, published 13 episodes this year and was listened to over 1,200 times. The team hosted their first ever live show at NSSC 2023, moderating a panel on space entrepreneurship. The show is looking to move to weekly publishing in the near future.
The Ecliptic team have published 11 newsletters over the last year, with the subscriber count now reaching 3,672. Ecliptic has continued to be an invaluable source alerting space enthusiasts to exciting job opportunities, events, and space news.
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Scan or click for our latest episode:
Scan or Click.
**Join over 3000 others. Subscribe to Ecliptic by UKSEDS for space news in your inbox the second Friday of every month.**
## **FINANCES**
This year, UKSEDS has maintained a strong financial position. A key contributor to our financial stability has been the UK Space Agency (UKSA) grant, which provided for NSSC 2024. We also received £5,000 in restricted funding from the RAeS Futures Scholarship. This year, we also introduced corporate-level sponsorships, moving away from solely event- or activity-specific funding. This change gives us more flexibility to budget for important but less high-profile initiatives, such as maintaining UKSEDS, expanding our events & outreach activities , and covering administrative costs, while still ensuring strong support for competitions and NSSC.
These developments not only reinforce our financial stability but also give us greater confidence in planning for the future, ensuring UKSEDS can continue supporting students and delivering valuable opportunities in the space sector.
||**_31 March 2022 -_**
**_30 March 2023_**|**_31 March 2023 - 30_**
**_March 2024_**|
|---|---|---|
|**Starting Balance**|£60,379.36|£29,562.75|
|**Income**|£41,404.58|£82,639.24|
|Of which restricted|£0|£35,000.00|
|**Expenses**|-£72,921.19|-£55,129.40|
|Of which restricted|£0|£1,018.57|
|**Profit/Loss**|-£31,016.61|£27,509.75|
|**Closing Balance**|£29,562.75|£57,072.36|
|Restricted funds at 30/03/2024:|||
|UKSA||£28,981.43|
|RAeS||£5,000.00|
||||
The charity is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registered on 27 February 2019.
**Charity's Full Name** : UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space **Other Names Used** : UKSEDS
**Principal Address** : UKSEDS, 27-29 SOUTH LAMBETH ROAD, LONDON, SW8 1SZ
## **Reserves Policy Statement** :
The charity's reserves are held in accordance with guidance issued by the Charities Commission onpublic benefit. The trustees have established a reserves policy to ensure financial stability and tosupport the charity's ongoing operations and future projects. Reserves are maintained to coverunexpected expenses, mitigate financial risks, and to ensure the continuity of the charity's servicesand programs
These accounts were approved on behalf of the UKSEDS board on the 28th January 2025 by Tanjin Huda, Treasurer for 2024/25 (executive trustee).
Tanjin Huda
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## **O U R W O R K I S M A D E P O S S I B L E B Y**
**OUR CORPORATE PARTNERS**
**ADDI TI ONAL SPONSORS**
## **STARTUP SPONSORS & SUPPORTERS**
**21**
## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts**
**Section A Independent Examiner’s Report**
**Report to the trustees/** Charity Name **members of** UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space **On accounts for the year** Period ended 30 March 2024 **Charity no** 1182239 **ended (if any) Set out on pages** 1-20 above
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended **30/03/24** .
- **Responsibilities and** As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation **basis of report** of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
## **Independent examiner's statement**
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
- accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
- the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
|**Signed:**
**Name:**
**Relevant professional**
**qualification(s) or body**
**(if any):**
**Address:**|**Date:**|30 Janaury 2025|
|---|---|---|
||||
||FJ Wilde||
||||
||FCCA DChA||
||||
||4 Marigold Drive||
||Bisley||
||Surrey||
||GU24 9SF||
**Section B Disclosure**
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
**Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** .