International aerospace and defence company Nammo has taken on a new building at Westcott further enhancing its UK propulsion facilities.
A new 15-year lease at Building 6040 comprising 18,200 sq ft of manufacturing and production space has been agreed with Westcott owners PATRIZIA Hanover PUT. The new development is situated on the former ‘solid rocket motor testing’ area known as the Western Development Area of the Park, within the Enterprise Zone.
The business has been based at Westcott for around 70 years and currently occupies Building 47 as well as J & F rocket testing sites. Nammo will be undertaking an extensive fit-out of the building to incorporate laboratories, offices and clean rooms in the facility which will be its UK HQ.
Nammo, which is headquartered in Norway, employs over 2,700 across 28 production sites in 12 countries and is today one of the world’s leading providers of rocket motors for both military and civilian customers.
Nammo UK’s range of ‘LEROS’ rocket engines are the prime choice for NASA deep space missions like the ‘JUNO’ and ‘Lucy’ missions to Jupiter, Mercury and Mars. Nammo UK is providing the rocket engines on the Airbus UK propulsion system for the joint ESA/NASA Mars Sample Return mission of 2025/26. This challenging and complex mission involves two spacecraft that will be returning the rock samples from Mars that are currently being collected by the Perseverance Rover.
The Nammo UK high performance bipropellant engine LEROS 4 is soon to be tested in the National Space Propulsion Test Facility and will be used on Lunar Landers and deep space missions including one called EnVision that will be destined for Venus.
Nammo has also been awarded a contract with the European Space Agency to design, build and test a throttleable 6000+ Newton engine called RELIANCE for the European Large Logistics Lander (also known as EL3) which is a four-year program. This fully European lunar lander is being designed to allow a series of missions to the Moon with different payload capabilities.
Nammo is managing the new National Space Propulsion Test Facility at Westcott on behalf of the UK Space Agency. This facility allows global space propulsion companies and academics to hotfire test rocket engines and thrusters up to 1500 Newtons in this state-of-the-art, highly efficient and sustainable rocket test facility.
Adam Watts, Business and Strategic Development Manager of Nammo Space said: “The capabilities that the National Space Propulsion Test Facility brings to the UK space industry are already having a positive impact upon business levels and our ability to win projects that would otherwise have gone elsewhere. Many of the major players in America are now buying rocket engines from us so the business is growing rapidly.
We work with other space and rocketry companies across the Westcott site and it’s great to see more companies moving to the park, further enhancing the community of space cluster companies.”
Nigel MacKenzie, Development Manager said: “Nammo sits at the heart of our Westcott propulsion family, so we are delighted to be able to accommodate its ongoing growth by providing move on space. Our job is to support these innovative companies throughout their lifecycle, providing them with a secure and sustainable environment to grow and develop their business operations.”
Richard Harrington, CEO of Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “We are delighted with the expansion of Nammo within the Westcott Enterprise Zone. This expansion reinforces the position of the Westcott site as a globally leading centre of excellence in space propulsion in the heart of Buckinghamshire and one which is increasingly attracting new business and investment.”
Westcott is recognised as an integral part of the UK space sector growth strategy with a nucleus of well-established companies supporting rocket and satellite enabled research and development projects.
