International space and weapons company expands UK HQ at business park near Aylesbury

Norway-based aerospace and defense company, Nammo, will be developing gadgets at a venue in Westcott Venture Park.

A new 15-year lease has been announced at Building 6040 at the Aylesbury Vale business site.

The building comes with 18,200 sq ft of manufacturing and production space, the deal was agreed between Nammo and Westcott owners and PATRIZIA Hanover PUT.

Nammo will set up at the ‘solid rocket motor testing’ area known as the Western Development Area of the Park, within the Enterprise Zone.

The business has used Westcott for around 70 years and currently occupies Building 47 as well as J & F rocket testing sites.

Nammo is undertaking an extensive fit-out of the building to incorporate laboratories, offices and clean rooms in the facility which will be its UK HQ.

The Norwegian company employs over 2,700 people across 28 production sites in 12 countries, it provides rocket motors to military organisations and civilians.

The ‘JUNO’ and ‘Lucy’ missions to Jupiter, Mercury and Mars, used rocket engines developed by Nammo in the UK.

An upcoming ESA/NASA Mars Sample Return mission scheduled for 2025/26 is using Nammo engines.

Experts say this will be a challenging and complex mission, two spacecrafts will be carrying rock samples collected by the Perseverance Rover

Nammo has also been awarded a four-year contract with the ESA to design, build and test a space engine called RELIANCE for the European Large Logistics Lander.

This fully European lunar lander is being designed to allow a series of missions to the Moon with different payload capabilities.

Also, Nammo is managing the new National Space Propulsion Test Facility at Westcott on behalf of the UK Space Agency.

Nigel MacKenzie, development manager at Westcott 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.”