Speakers

Mike Curtis-Rouse is a leading expert in space infrastructure, robotics, and advanced manufacturing with over twenty years of experience across aerospace, defence, and industrial innovation. He is Head of In-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM) at the Satellite Applications Catapult, a UK research and technology organisation driving the industrialisation of space.

Mike leads the development of Europe’s largest Rendezvous, Proximity Operations and Docking (RPOD) simulator, supporting validation of satellite servicing, assembly, and refuelling systems. His team works with organisations including Airbus, Astroscale, ClearSpace, Orbit Fab, and Space Solar to accelerate the transition from concept to in-orbit capability. He also contributes to international standards and policy through the GSOA Sustainability Taskforce, CONFERS Interoperability Working Group, and BSI Advisory Group for Space Sustainability.

Previously, Mike led the Catapult’s Access to Space programme, managing the UK’s In-Orbit Demonstration missions and overseeing the first payload flown from a UK spaceport. He established the UK’s Planetary Robotics and Autonomy Test Facility and co-led the first joint ExoMars analogue campaign with DLR and the Canadian Space Agency.

Earlier in his career, he held roles with Reaction Engines, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, 3DSIM (acquired by ANSYS), and CERN’s ATLAS Detector team that helped confirm the Higgs Boson.

Mike studied at the University of Manchester (UMIST) and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Mike serves as a Major in the British Army Reserve, specialising in communications with deployments to Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Estonia.