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Future for The UK Space Agency

ultimaterandombanana
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ultimaterandombanana

ultimaterandombanana

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o70a1wfduwj5xt54g.jpg

I think is great that the uk finally has a centralised organization for the exploration of space and I have created this thread for people to post news, comments and Predictions/ideas for the uk space agency.

This news is a little bit old but if you read the article it talks about a national cubesat program, which sounds very interesting:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/successful-launch-for-uk-space-agencys-first-cubesat-mission

s300_UKUBE2.jpg

There is also the news for the uk's first space port:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-paves-way-for-uk-spaceport

s300_spaceport-latest.jpg

I hope your all as interested in the National space program as I am

Please keep this thread alive

ultimaterandomabanana :)

Edited by ultimaterandombanana
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Borklund

Borklund

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Spaceport...so, USA ( :P ) is going to invest in Skylon for real?

No. They (the FAA to be specific) are going to help Britain with things like spaceport legislation, lessons learned and the like. There is no Skylon, it's only a concept. Reaction Engines recently received some £200m in private and govt (UK and EU) funding to build and test one full scale SABRE engine by 2020. Skylon will only be funded if SABRE is proven to work and either UK or EU politicians greenlight the project. It would take several billion dollars and many years before it would ever see the light of day. Near term use of the proposed UK Spaceport would presumably be Virgin Galactic, if they can get an export license (and they actually start flying passengers to space).

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Streetwind

Streetwind

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We have a space agency?

Yes you do! In fact, it's one of the founding members of the ESA, and the fifth largest budget contributor. I know this and I'm not even British... why don't you know it? :P

It's actually a bit sad - I wish other national space programs besides the USA were more visible. But I suppose there's limits to what they can do. Sobering fact: NASA's budget, underfunded as we always call it, is larger than than all the budgets of all other space agencies of the rest of the world combined. And that's not even starting on the additional space development the private US companies are contributing.

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Kryten

Kryten

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Yes you do! In fact, it's one of the founding members of the ESA, and the fifth largest budget contributor. I know this and I'm not even British... why don't you know it? :P

Britain is a founding member, but there was no unified civilian program until UKSA was set up in 2010.

Sobering fact: NASA's budget, underfunded as we always call it, is larger than than all the budgets of all other space agencies of the rest of the world combined. And that's not even starting on the additional space development the private US companies are contributing.

It's higher than all other civilian space programs combined. I highly doubt it beats the combined total of military+civilian ones, particularly with the NRO's fondness for $1 billion+ sats to contend with.

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xenomorph555

xenomorph555

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We have a space agency?

We have a space agency that produces some of the best quality satellites in the world (for other people), however we have not had a space program since the 70's due to bad governments. Hopefully a future government will utilise the countrys full potential.

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Idobox

Idobox

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I don't see that as great news, on the contrary.

UK, like France, Germany, Italy and others has been part of ESA for quite some time, and despite the smaller budget than NASA and complex issues found in any European project, we've been able to do some good work.

The two pages linked by the OP sound terribly like the UK wants to play alone, or maybe even against the rest of Europe. Their logo is the freaking flag (compare to CNES or DLR), they want to "establish the UK as a leader", make "the UK the place for space" and "to lead the way".

The UK part of ESA budget is 300 billion € a year, roughly 10% of the total, and comparable to JAXA. UK focusing their efforts and money on a national program would obviously hurt ESA without leading to much useful stuff. Even Skylon will never be a pure UK program, as RL as stated they just want to be an engine integrator.

So, UK getting hyped and excited about space is good news, but I'd rather see an increase in budget rather than flags and the building of a space port, especially in Scotland (Seriously, Europe has the best spaceport around in French Guyana, and people ready to fork the money for a space flight can fly there, or to some UK oversee territory).

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Nibb31

Nibb31

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We have a space agency that produces some of the best quality satellites in the world (for other people).

You are mixing up "space agency", "space industry", and "space program".

The UK doesn't really have much of a space program. Their space agency is UKSA (France has CNES, Germany has DLR, etc...) which cooperates with ESA. The UKSA hasn't done much yet. The UK has a large private space industry though, including BAe, Airbus, and whole bunch of others.

And I agree with Idobox. I don't like the nationalistic overtones from a member that participates in ESA, where it's all about cooperation. If the UKSA wants to eventually go it alone and withdraw from ESA, they will never have enough of a budget to do anything interesting, and everyone loses. If they are genuinely interested in becoming a leading member of ESA, then they need to increase their participation to the levels of France and Germany, and everyone wins.

Edited by Nibb31
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Idobox

Idobox

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To be honest, they contribute to ESA with roughly the budget of JAXA, and JAXA does some pretty good stuff. I just think you get better bang for your buck with an organization the size of ESA than you do with something the size of JAXA.

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Kryten

Kryten

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To be honest, they contribute to ESA with roughly the budget of JAXA, and JAXA does some pretty good stuff. I just think you get better bang for your buck with an organization the size of ESA than you do with something the size of JAXA.

You must have messed up a conversion somewhere; UK contribution to ESA is roughly 0.5 billion Euros, JAXA budget is roughly €2 billion.

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xenomorph555

xenomorph555

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You are mixing up "space agency", "space industry", and "space program".

The UK doesn't really have much of a space program. Their space agency is UKSA (France has CNES, Germany has DLR, etc...) which cooperates with ESA. The UKSA hasn't done much yet. The UK has a large private space industry though, including BAe, Airbus, and whole bunch of others.

I am not mixing it up, what I tried to state was that we have an agency UKSA that runs a bunch of company's in our industry however we do not have a program.

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cpast

cpast

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A space agency doesn't run companies. It drives a space program and buys stuff from private companies.

In capitalist countries, sure; however, in communist countries (e.g. USSR), aren't the producers of rockets also employed by the government and directed by the space agency?

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MartGonzo

MartGonzo

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I'd like to be optimistic but economic collapse is inevitable, and very, very soon

there's a vast ocean of unpayable (fraudulent) debt that has been largely hidden from the public, the derivative debt alone is 4 times the entire worlds GDP, then there's the whole fraudulent credit based economy the private central banks have tricked us into.

creating money from credit and loaning it to the government at interest, any politician that talks about paying off the national debt is either a moron or a liar.

It can't be done, private monopolistic central banks create the money with interest attached, so the money to pay for the debt can only come from the central banks with more debt attached.

An ever escalating spiral of debt that can only lead to slavery.

There is no way out but to force governments to start printing debt free money and arrest the criminal banking families behind the central banks.

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Nibb31

Nibb31

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In capitalist countries, sure; however, in communist countries (e.g. USSR), aren't the producers of rockets also employed by the government and directed by the space agency?

Wasn't this about Cameron's UK? We're talking about the most capitalistic country in Europe.

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