GORE, the technology, materials and medical manufacturing giant, has unveiled its first space centre of excellence outside the US at a site in Scotland.
The launch of the Gore Space Centre of Excellence at Dundee Technology Park plant was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebration of the firm’s legacy in helping the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
The firm’s global head said during a visit to the site that it would be central to its development of global space exploration technologies, and comes as the country prepares for the UK’s first space station in Sutherland and has growing space business hubs in bases including Glasgow and Prestwick.
About 130 experts will be initially be based in Dundee.
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Jason Field, chief executive of WL Gore & Associates, said: “Under the roof today is our Gore space cables and assemblies, so primarily manufacturing.
“We would expect over time to start to leverage that platform to look for opportunities to apply our technology more broadly for space exploration.
“With the pace of technology development and what is happening here around Scotland relative to space we would expect things to accelerate pretty quickly.”
Ivan McKee, Scottish Innovation Minister said: “Scotland already has a great reputation in the space sector.
“We manufacture more small satellites than anywhere else in Europe and almost a fifth of jobs in the sector are based here.
“I’m delighted that a hugely-successful global company like Gore - a company that has already contributed to our economy for over forty-five years - has chosen Scotland as the base for its space sector activities and as the location where it wants to champion innovation and best practice. This is great news for Scotland and great news for Dundee.”
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The new Space Centre of Excellence showcases the vast heritage and technology developments from Gore over the years, as well as celebrating the role of the Performance Solutions Division in producing electronic products for the space industries.
Gore’s first involvement in space began in 1958 and has paved the way for the ongoing responsibility of supplying more than 100 spaceflight programs with key technology including Gore cables and assemblies.
The 1966 NASA unmanned mission to the moon, which utilised Gore cables, is described as a landmark moment in Gore’s rich space heritage.
The cables have continued to be used in subsequent missions.
Gore cables were also part of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969, where they were used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
Founded in 1958, Gore, which has a separate base in Livingston, has built a reputation for solving "complex technical challenges in the most demanding environments", from revolutionising the outerwear industry with GORE-TEX fabric to creating medical devices and enabling new levels of performance in the aerospace, pharmaceutical and mobile electronics markets.
READ MORE: Space, Scotland’s New Frontier
Mr Field continued: "While we are trying to concentrate much of our manufacturing capability here in the Dundee Technology Park we do have application of engineers in the field internationally that would collaborate back into the centre of excellence here and connect back into the customer, so we have strong linkage between technology and application.
"We have been impressed with the energy and investment in Dundee and Scotland.
"We are really excited about the focus here and the opportunity to co-develop with Scotland in terms of making an impact in space, so exciting times for us."
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