The UK Government has launched a new plan to promote the space industry.
Tim Furniss/LONDON
IAN TAYLOR, UK Minister of Science and Technology, is boldly going - at least until the next election - where no previous space minister has gone before. He has managed to convince the British National Space Centre (BNSC), the UK space industry and the universities, to work together with him to produce the most comprehensive forward plan for the UK's space activities since the space plan of the BNSC's first director general, Roy Gibson was shot down in flames in 1987. Unlike Gibson's attempt to increase the space budget, however, Taylor's plan is to better and more efficiently use the state's relatively small annual space budget of £300 million ($460 million). This is realistic thinking, given today's monetary climate and the unlikely prospect of the budget being increased.
Two innovative, no-holds-barred, open Space Policy Forums held in 1995-6 marked this all-too-rare fusion of interested space parties and helped forge the new Forward Plan which aims to bring competitive and scientifically valuable roles for the UK (Flight International, 10-16 April).
Not surprisingly, Earth observation - particularly custom-produced satellite remote-sensing-based data products for industry - on which about 50% of the UK budget is spent, features highly. Indeed, the world Earth observation market is expected to be worth $35 billion by 2004.
The UK has made a rather belated attempt to cash in on the success of the Ariane programme by putting some funds into the Ariane 5 launcher - with which a former, less-anonymous space minister, Kenneth Clarke wanted nothing to do in 1987. The UK remains cold about manned space-flight and micro-gravity processing and research opportunities however.
As a result, if - and when - the International Space Station and its European Space Agency Columbus module are operational, the UK cannot expect much representation. Many European astronauts can expect to operate aboard the Station and have already flown precursor Shuttle missions as either payload specialists or international mission specialists selected in recognition of their respective countries' involvement and funding in the manned space field.
None has been, nor will be, a UK national, except Michael Foale, a three-times Shuttle astronaut, who had to become a US citizen to become a NASA mission specialist. He will fly aboard the Mir space station in 1997 and has been joined in training at NASA by another UK-born, US citizen, Piers Sellers. Helen Sharman, the first Briton in space, was launched on a disorganised, undercapitalised, quasi-commercial mission to the Mir in 1991, with muted and distant recognition and support from the BNSC and other UK space authorities.
Taylor's plan also recognises the importance of developing a synergy between civil and military research and development operations; helping industry to win military business; and to encourage military spin-offs into commercial markets, especially in Earth observation and telecommunications.
In other areas, space science uses about 26% of the budget; 12% is spent on communications and 3% on technology and transportation. The UK holds an estimated 23% European market share. The UK is the largest single user of space technology and applications in Europe.
Source: Flight International
