UK Space Agency Launch

On March 23, 2010, in News, by education

UKSEDS were lucky enough to secure some invitations to the launch of the new UK Space Agency.

Lords Mandelson and Drayson announced the new agency, with typical political aplomb. The language used didn’t really suggest more than what we already know, but things like the agency having ‘muscle’, ‘clarity’ and ‘efficiency’ seem to suggest that it will be a step forward from the BNSC, which it supersedes, and move towards a heightened British presence in the global space market.

A press release is available here, along with the new logo (which is pretty damn sexy, even with the Dad’s Army allusions that it conjures up).

The Secretary and Minister of State, along with David Williams of the BNSC, Andy Green of the Space IGT, and Major Tim Peake of ESA’s astronaut corps took questions from the floor, which revealed a little more detail of the new agency, including the projected start date of April 1st and the fact that no-one really knows (or cares) how you pronounce ‘UKSA’ (though some of the literature calls it by the full title of Executive Space Agency: ‘UKESA’).

Hopefully this will herald new developments in the space sector, and the panel was keen to highlight outreach programmes, which UKSEDS can hopefully contribute to.

There were some famous faces attending the launch, and the members in attendance were lucky enough to get to speak to some of them.

Professor Brian Cox talked to us a little about his new BBC programme, and hopefully he will be bigging UKSEDS up in the near future! (he was also tweeting from the event!)

We even managed to say hello to Jean-Jaques Dordain, head of ESA, who also helped to answer some questions during the panel session and highlight the fact that the new agency is a UK driven announcement, but that ties with ESA will stay strong.

Last but not least, we managed to get some time with Major Peake and he kindly posed for a photo, though he was far too busy acting as a ‘Space Ambassador’ to chat to us.