UK Space Agency means lift off for the economyLONDON — Britain has opened its first space agency to coordinate all U.K. space activities and help raise the country's profile in the global space economy.
Ministers say the U.K. Space Agency will allow all aspects of civilian space policy to be handled efficiently under one roof, rather than by various government departments and research councils. It also aims to make the most of the areas Britain excels in, such as satellites, telecommunications and robotics.
The U.K. space industry currently supports 68,000 jobs.
The agency was started Tuesday with a modest budget of about 230 million pounds ($346 million) -- compared with NASA's yearly budget of $19 billion. The U.S. recently has been scaling back its space ambitions.
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The UK is to get its own version of Nasa - an executive body for the space and satellite industries. The United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) - announced today by Lord Mandelson, Lord Drayson and British trainee astronaut Timothy Peake - will gradually take over the job of running the country's space spending from various Government departments and agencies.
Space technology may be one of the few areas in which a recession-struck UK can see its way to a profit. As he announced the new agency, Mandelson called the space industry "one of Britain's real success stories" and said it provided jobs directly and indirectly to the UK workforce "year on year". Drayson agreed, saying: "Britain's space industry has defied the recession. It can grow to £40bn a year and create 100,000 jobs in 20 years."
Also announced today was a new, £40m, International Space Innovation Centre at Harwell which will take pride of place alongside the European Space Agency (ESA) centre which opened there last July – the first ESA facility in the UK. The new centre will co-ordinate groups working on data provided by European satellites.
- How much does space cost the UK?In 2008-9 (the last period for which figures are available), Britain spent £268m in, or on, space. Of this total, the bulk (£182.3m) is spent through the ESA. Among other areas, we spent money on observing the earth from space, developing space technology and actively exploring space. For example, in 2008-9 the MoD channelled £500,000 direct to the European Space Agency to observe the earth from space for defence purposes while the
- How does our spending compare with other countries?Our space budget is dwarfed by America's annual spend of £12bn. In Europe we rank fourth, spending less than France, Germany and Italy – with France, the biggest spender, outlaying £1.7bn every year. In terms of value for money, China puts them all to shame. With an annual spend of around £900m a year, it has plans for a lunar base some time in the 2020s.
- What is the space industry worth to us?According to a report published in February by the 'Space IGS' (a group collaboration between government, industry and academia) the space industry contributes almost £5.6bn a year to UK GDP and supports 68,000 jobs. Between 1999 and 2007 it grew by 9 per cent a year, and flourishing revenues suggest it has continued to grow since then despite the recession - though figures are not yet available.
- So when are we going to put a Brit on the moon?No time soon, sadly. The British National Space Centre, predecessor of the UKSA, says "in the short term, the focus will remain on unmanned and robotic activity". In 1986 the UK chose to opt out of human exploration missions, the argument being that it is more economical to send a droid.However, last year it was revealed that when US astronauts poked their flagpole through the moondust in 1969, they were also leaving a Union Jack. Keith Wright, a British engineer who helped make scientific instruments taken by Apollo 11 to the moon admitted he scratched a patriotic union jack on the casing of a seismometer. After he had put up the stars and stripes, Buzz Aldrin tossed the cover onto the lunar surface, where it remains.
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