Lucy Edge is Chief Operating Officer of the Satellite Applications Catapult an elite organisation established by Innovate UK to accelerate the growth of the UK space sector. She previously held senior positions at Avanti Communications Group, as Director of Spacecraft and Customer Operations and General Manager at Avanti’s Goonhilly site.

Lucy has a background in Astrophysics and holds an MSc n Astronautics and Space Engineering. Amongst other career highlights, Lucy has been responsible for two satellite launch campaigns which now provide communications for much of the continents of Africa and Asia, and set up the Avanti Communications Spacecraft Operations Centre in West Cornwall, which is now at the centre of one of the fastest growing areas of Cornwall’s burgeoning space industry, employing over 50 highly skilled technologists.

Whilst many view the growing space industry as a potential source of wealth, Lucy sees a different paradigm: “The space industry provides us with two unique opportunities. It enables us to improve the future for everyone through novel applications built on geospatial data, and it offers a unique way of building connections between people and communities to transform the way humans communicate with each other.”

Lucy also expects the space industry to create an exciting range of careers in science and technology for engineers in particular; with an important role to play in the representation of women in these occupations.

Lucy serves as a non-executive director at the Eden Project, a governor at Truro & Penrith College and sits on the board of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership. She is an accomplished athlete, having represented Great Britain in triathlon.