In an unassuming building on an office park in North Glasgow a young Scottish scientist lays out an ambition that sounds somewhat far fetched in such modest surroundings.

“I would like to have launched the first satellite designed and built in Scotland, instead of people saying space is something that other people do,” he says.

The speaker, Craig Clark, is a fan of science fiction novels who openly admits that he spent more time playing drums than studying when he was at Glasgow University.

Eighteen years after having to resit six out of his seven third year exams he now presides over a lab and office suite with a full sized snooker table. The rooms are divided by a glass partition decorated with motifs from the Space Invaders computer game.

Mr Clark, 37, talks with an air of boyish enthusiasm which suits the surroundings.

It would be foolish to underestimate Mr Clark or his Clyde Space business, however.

It is not many young Scottish technology firms that can number the mighty National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the USA among their clients.

Just last week Mr Clark was at Warwick University to collect a prestigious Sir Arthur Clarke award from the UK astronaut Time Peake on behalf of Clyde Space. Sponsored by the Space Education Trust, the awards recognize “notable contributions to the UK space sector”.

Clyde Space won the Achievement in Space Commerce category in recognition of the remarkable progress it has achieved in the last five years. “ Clyde Space has become established as a leading supplier of small and micro spacecraft systems, has around a 40% global market share for CubeSat power systems and is a leading CubeSat vendor,” said the sponsors.

Last year Clyde Space won the endorsement of some seasoned engineering entrepreneurs in a £1 million funding round led by the Nevis Capital investment business. This was formed by the Pirrie brothers to invest some of the proceeds of the £62m sale of LCH Generators to Speedy Hire.

Hugh Stewart, founder of the Caledonian Alloys specialist recycling business, also joined the share register.

Nevis and Mr Stewart’s Coralinn LLP took minority shareholdings. Mr Clark retained a major shareholding.

James Pirrie from Nevis Capital said at the time: “We believe that Clyde Space has a fantastic opportunity to grow in a space market that has been defying the recession, with all indicators suggesting that it will grow at an increasing pace in the years to come.”

Clyde Space has become a leader in the highly specialised market to design and supply the power and direction control systems that play a key part in the operation of the miniature satellites that are underpinning the communications revolution. These utilise advances in fields such as solar power and lithium ion batteries.

CubeSats typically weigh around 4kg and are the size of a coffee-maker but can do all that their much bigger predecessors can do.

The satellites can be developed quickly and sent into space relatively cheaply, for around £500,000.

The systems that Clyde Space designs have to do their job correctly to ensure that CubeSats stay in the right position to be able to communicate with earth. Clyde Space also supplies components for other satellites.

Besides NASA, the company’s customer base includes the US Air Force and operations in China and India. Mr Clark hopes to grow annual sales from around £1.2m currently to £2m over the next year.

Speaking quickly in the tones of the Central Belt, Mr Clark maps out a vision of the future in which satellites equipped with high tech telescopes and communications devices will be used by a host of organisations in a variety of fields.

For example, he reckons 50 CubeSats would be enough for a bushfire warning system to cover the entire planet.

“These could appeal to the likes of Microsoft and Google. You could order pictures taken from space.”

CubeSats might even be used to track shoals of tuna or other fish, he suggests.

Mr Clark sees no reason why Clyde Space should not win a big share of the resulting market.

“We could go into mass production in Glasgow. I would love to be making hundreds of satellites,” he says.

But Mr Clark admits that he was not the most likely candidate to become a successful technology entrepreneur when he left Glasgow University.

After deciding to study electronics because of a vague awareness that computers were going to become big, Mr Clark emerged from the graduate recruitment round with just one job offer.

This was from a small firm down south called Surrey Satellite Technology, where he became a junior power engineer. Under Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, STS pioneered the development of small satellites.

Over the next 11 years the firm achieved rapid growth as the industry started to take off.

Mr Clark ended up running a power systems team of 15 people.

This was all great fun but like many Scots ‘abroad’ he eventually felt the lure of coming back home.

“I fancied a bit of a change. I had a one year old daughter and my wife was pregnant. We wanted to go back to Scotland,” recalls Mr Clark. The decision to start his own business owed much to chance and the state of the Scottish labour market.

“I spoke to a friend in Surrey and when I said I wanted to go back the first thing he said was ‘are you going to start your own company?’. I said no, I had never considered that. But there were no space jobs in Scotland, Surrey was unique, so I started asking myself questions like am I that sort of person? and I decided I could do it.”

After selling the family home in Surrey for £200,000 and paying off the mortgage the Clarks had £40,000 to fund the start-up of a business that they decided to run together. They founded Clyde Space in 2005.

Mr Clark got an industrial fellowship from Scottish Enterprise which provided vital support.

He eventually progressed from working on the dining room table to a small unit where the company developed its first prototype.

Clyde Space delivered its first kit in 2006, to South Africa.

There were some very tough times in the early days.

“You go through some really tight cash spots and you learn a lot from that,” he said.

The Clarks still run the business. M s Clark does finance and operations while her husband is the sales and strategy man.

l Craig Clark was born in 1973 in Glasgow

l He attended Ravenswood Primary and Greenfaulds High School, Cumbernauld.

l Studies Electronics at Glasgow University from 1990 -94 and did a part-time MSc by Research in Satellite Engineering at the University of Surrey from 1999-2001.

l Worked in power systems at Surrey Satellite Technology 1994-2005

l Started Clyde Space 2005

l Outside interests include spending time with his young family, playing sport and the drums, reading science fiction novels.