At the Chelmsford based company Teledyne e2v, they work to develop sensors which have been used in more than 150 space missions for both NASA and the European Space Agency.
Families in Essex have been taking part in all sorts of space activities to mark the occasion.
Space Day at Cressing Temple Barns near Braintree combined a range of galactic exhibits and talks, including fictional space characters as well as factual.
Essex has a long history of manufacturing components for the space industry firstly at Marconi in Chelmsford and now at it's successor Teledyne-E-2-V and representatives from the company were on hand to encourage the next generation of space scientists and engineers.