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New space agency and new international space centre for UK

23 Mar 2010

UK Space AgencyA new £40m international space centre at Harwell has been announced at the launch of the UK Space Agency.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and Science Minister Lord Drayson announced the creation of the International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) in London today.

The ISIC is supported by £12m from BIS’ Strategic Investment Fund. It will be sited with the European Space Agency facility opened last July at Harwell, Oxfordshire.

The ISIC will establish centres of excellence in the UK to:

  • exploit the data generated by Earth Observation satellites
  • use space data to understand and counter climate change
  • ensure the security and resilience of space systems and services

UK Space Agency

The new UK Space Agency will take over responsibility for policy and key Government budgets for space, including the European Space Agency (ESA) subscriptions currently funded by the research councils.

The Agency will also manage UK interests in EU projects including GMES, Galileo and the EU Satellite centre. These are currently the responsibility of Defra, Department for Transport and the Ministry of Defence respectively.

Video

Staff at EADS Astrium Portsmouth facility talk about their jobs in the space sector and the contribution they make to the UK.

 

Lord Drayson and Major Timothy Peake talk about the launch of the new UK Space Agency

Images

Images from the launch of the UK Space Agency and stock images of satellite manufacturing facilities are available for re-use by journalists and bloggers at the BIS Flickr album here.

Links