The Isle of Man's space industry will get a welcome boost this weekend with the opening of the International Institute of Space Commerce.

Hosted at the International Business School, the institute is a joint venture between the Manx government and the International Space University in Strasbourg.

The Island beat competition from other cities to be granted the institute, which will officially open on Saturday.

Director of Space Commerce for the Manx government Tim Craine (pictured) told Manx Radio it was a fantastic achievement: "It's amazing that the International Space University chose the Isle of Man for their first ever international institute, and when you consider the competition was other cities around the world like Tokyo, Los Angeles, Toronto and Paris it was great that the Isle of Man was felt to be sufficiently committed, and to already have a critical mass of industry people on the Island, that they felt it was the sort of jurisdiction they wanted to be associated with."