Tim Furniss/GUILDFORD

THE UK GOVERNMENT made a mistake, in not participating in the Ariane 5 launcher programme, the country's space minister, Ian Taylor, has admitted.

Speaking during an UK Space Policy symposium at the University of Surrey on 15 September, Taylor said that a "...marginal contribution to the programme was being considered".

The decision not to participate in the Ariane 5 project was made in 1987 by the former space minister, now Chancellor, Kenneth Clarke, who saw it as part of the European Space Agency's (ESA) manned space flight programme, to launch the Hermes space plane. He described ESA's manned flight plans as a "giant frolic in the sky".

Later, when the Ariane 5 lost its manned space flight role with the cancellation of the Hermes, the UK Government "...did not adjust" its thinking, says Taylor.

UK Company Avica provides ducting for the first-stage Vulcain engine used on the launcher, but, beyond that, UK industry is virtually unrepresented.

Despite his comments on Ariane 5, Taylor warns that an increase in the UK civil space budget, which reached £194 million in 1994-5, is out of the question. Taylor had called the symposium as a first step towards establishing a coherent five-year space plan which can make the most of the modest budget, involving all sectors of the industry and its users.

"There is a need to step back and take a medium-term view. Today is not the time to ask for more money, but that does not mean we are constrained from looking at the proportions of expenditure," says Taylor, who will be representing the UK at the critical ESA council meeting in Toulouse, France on 18-20 October.

The main observations of the symposium, which Taylor said had to be open and frank, were summarised by former British National Space Centre and ESA director-general, Roy Gibson. The need for a "space road-map" is essential for the UK, says Gibson.

ESA needs to be reformed, he says, adding: "We are not criticising ESA, but it's just a manifestation that the space game has changed. Newer ways of working with industry are needed."

Gibson cites particularly a need to relax the juste retours rule in ESA, which favours companies in countries contributing to certain programmes on the basis of their participation.

"This is not an efficient way of working," he says.

The European Union will play an increasing role in space, he adds, and there should be a closer synergy between military and commercial projects.

Source: Flight International