Area guide · Stevenage
Stevenage builds things that leave the planet: satellites and interplanetary craft assemble in its cleanrooms, missiles and defence systems in its secure halls. It's Britain's most literally aerospace town — and its kit culture runs on gowning logs, ESD testers and security passes.
The local economy
Space and defence manufacture define the town: satellite assembly and test in graded cleanrooms (a Mars rover was built here in one), missile and defence systems in access-controlled facilities — both running gowning, ESD verification and FOD discipline at their most rigorous, since orbit offers no recalls. Around the primes: pharma manufacture, engineering suppliers, the A1(M)'s logistics and the first new town's construction and services base.
Kit by industry
| Local industry | The kit that matters | The spec detail |
|---|---|---|
| Satellite assembly | Cleanroom gowning, ESD systems | The gowning world at space grade |
| Defence manufacture | FOD-aware fitted kit, documented PPE | Access-controlled sites buy to the document |
| Pharma & labs | Gowning + lab kit per COSHH | The two-worlds pattern |
| Engineering suppliers | Machine-shop rules, ESD where zoned | The spindle code |
| Logistics & trades | Zone kit, site baseline | Kit by zone |
The detail that matters
Spacecraft assembly runs the strictest version of every discipline this library covers: cleanroom gowning because a fibre in the wrong place fails a mission, ESD systems (garments, footwear, flooring, verified daily) because flight electronics die at voltages skin can't feel, and FOD control because nothing gets retrieved at 36,000 km. The supplier lesson mirrors aerospace's, amplified: kit standards are mission assurance, documented to match.
Outside the halls, the town works normally — the A1(M) sheds, construction and the everyday trades — but the primes' culture leaks outward usefully: Stevenage's engineering firms tend to run documented, audit-ready wardrobes because their customers expect nothing less.
Supply
Questions
Cleanroom gowning to the facility's grade — low-lint coverall systems, hoods, overshoes and gloves — within a verified ESD system of garments, footwear and flooring, under FOD-control rules. Space hardware tolerates neither particles nor static nor loose items; the wardrobe is mission assurance.
Flight electronics can be damaged by static discharges far below human perception, and a latent defect discovered in orbit has no fix. ESD garments, tested footwear and grounded workstations form a verified system — checked daily at tester stations, recorded like the quality data it is.
Nationwide from stock express — ESD kit, FOD-aware fitted workwear and the town's ordinary trade lists through one account per firm, with the documentation their customers' audits expect.
We supply nationwide from stock — send the roles and headcount and we'll come back with a kit list, embroidered.