Will spaceflight become a UK election issue like the USA?

by | Jul 13, 2009 | Seradata News | 1 comment

To see space tourism red tape get UK national newspaper coverage and for it to centre on criticism from the second largest political party in the country’s 1,000-year old parliamentary system would be surprising to many Britons to say the least

While the UK is not a country known for having enthusiastic support for space travel from its political class Hyperbola is not entirely surprised. This blog is aware that on 8 June Sir Richard Branson met with Conservative party leader David Cameron – the Conservative party (locally known as the Tories) is that second largest party and under the country’s constitutional law is referred to as the “official opposition”

Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn made an interesting comment at the 30 June Royal Aeronautical Society space tourism conference saying that he expected “the opposition to talk more about [space tourism]”. Whitehorn went on vacation soon after and so I didn’t get an answer to my email about that

The 9 July Mark Henderson Times Online article that Duncan Law-Green’s Rocketeer.co.uk blog points too refers to a 2005 report but there has been work done by the British National Space Centre (BNSC) since then, two further reports in fact. Well, why shouldn’t the bureaucrats have fun too?

In 2006 the BNSC undertook a consultation of its licensing rules and that was followed by a more detailed 2008 study that recommended how the space tourism industry could be encouraged with a phased introduction of rules

What made the open criticism from Whitehorn at the RAeS conference surprising was that a very senior BNSC official has told Hyperbola that they are completely supportive of Virgin Galactic satellite launcher proposals

And as to UK spaceflight licensing rules changing, well they won’t just impact a UK spaceport. The UK government will have to be involved in the launch of SpaceShip Two (SS2) from Spaceport America under the UK’s Cold War era outer space act obligations. A lack of movement on the BNSC’s part for its licensing system threatens the whole Virgin Galactic enterprise. So what has led to this almost open warfare by UK standards?

Hyperbola can only imagine that the space tourism card is one being played because Branson’s Virgin Group has other interests that will benefit from a David Cameron led UK government. And because of the likely 2012 in-service date for SS2 knocking today’s government won’t hurt Galactic’s dealings much with a new Conservative space minister after the May 2010 general election the UK has to have – all the opinion polls indicate a Conservative victory next year

About Seradata

Seradata produce the renowned Seradata database. Trusted by over 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, Seradata is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).

For more information go to https://www.seradata.com/product/

Related Articles

Viasat completes US$6.3 billion Inmarsat acquisition in a major satcom merger

Global Fixed Service Satellite (FSS) operator Viasat Inc has closed its long awaited acquisition of Inmarsat, a British satellite telecommunications Read more

Falcon 9 launches from Vandenberg with 52 Starlink Group 2-10 satellites aboard

A Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 rocket was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 0602 GMT on 31 Read more

North Korean Chollima-1 maiden launch ends in second stage failure – sets off neighbours’ alarms

North Korea attempted to orbit a military reconnaissance satellite Malligyeong-1 using its new Chollima-1 rocket from a pad at the Read more

Smaller orders: launches for Haven-1 space station and its Vast-1 mission, for EWS-1 prototype; sat contracts for Zeno and Orbit Fab

Commercial space station operator Vast has signed a contract with SpaceX for the launches of its first space station and Read more

Long March 2F launches “Taikonaut” trio to Chinese Space Station on Shenzhou 16

A Long March 2F/G (Y16) launched Shenzhou 16 with three Chinese astronauts ("Taikonauts") on board on their way to the Read more

GSLV Mk II puts up NVS-01 navsat

An Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) GSLV Mk II rocket (GSLV 2 CUSP 4) was successfully launched from Satish Dhawan Read more

Russia launches Kondor-FKA radar satellite

On 2114 GMT on 26 May 2023, a Soyuz 2-1a/Fregat launched a Kondor-FKA No 1 satellite for Roscosmos. The 1,050 Read more

BADR-8 comsat is launched by a Falcon 9 into a super-synchronous transfer orbit

The Arabsat-owned communications satellite BADR-8 aka Arabsat-7B was launched by a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 from Cape Canaveral at 0430 Read more

Categories

Archives

Tags

nasaspacexecoreviewsissesaArianespacevideochina25virgin galacticfalcon 9ULARoscosmosFalcon 9v1.2FT Block 5DGAevaaviation weekspacewalkaressoyuzIGTBeidouawardsInternational Space StationspaceBlue OriginSatellite broadcastingrussiamoonStarlinkCargo Return VehicleRocket LabresearchboeingmarsblogAirbus DSOneWeborionISROspaceshiptwoimpacthyperboladelayjaxamarsdemocratgoogle lunar prizerocketlunarhypertextobamaEutelsatlaunchVegatourismconstellationbarack obamafiguresSESnorthspaceflightthales alenia spacenode 2fundedRaymond LygoIntelsat2009romeAtlas VExpress MD-2dassault aviationss2Elon MuskLockheed MartinaviationLucy2008wk2sstlukradiotestmissilesuborbitaldocking portexplorationVirgin OrbitinternetAriane 5 ECAChina Manned Space EngineeringSLSsts-122missile defensenewspapercotsgalileospace tourismflight2010Ariane 5Express AMU 1spaceportbuildspace stationaltairNorthrop GrummanElectronshuttleProton Minternational astronautical congressscaled compositesIntelsat 23CosmosLauncherOneEuropean Space Agencyhanleybudgetrulesnew yorksoyuz 2-1aLong March 4CLong March 2D/2Ariane 6shenzhouatvspace shuttleVietnamcongressMojaveboldenInmarsatOrbital ATKnew shepardLong March 2CGuiana Space CenteriaccnesksclawsSpace Systems/LoralUK Space AgencyLong March 4BprotonUS Air ForceILSApollodarpaTalulah RileydragonastronautusabasepicturelanderAstriumSkyloneuSSLVega Clunar landerfiveeventfalconSea LaunchWednesdayinterview50thSNCAprilKuaizhou 1ASpace InsuranceTelesat7linkatlantisLong MarchcustomersuccessorFalcon 9v1.2 Block 5