Damien Phillips has an interesting Centre Write piece on the failures of independent UK space programmes, why the ESA is not a solution and why it matters. Well worth reading.
Could Britain still become a space empire?
In 1971, the United Kingdom became the third-ever nation to put a satellite into space using one of its own rockets. The success of Prospero, and the Black Arrow rocket programme which put it into orbit, seemed to place Britain at the cutting edge of the last and greatest scientific and industrial frontier.
But, even if you’ve never heard of Prospero before, you know how this story ends. The UK has never since put another satellite in space under its own power, preferring the cheaper short-term expedient of depending on foreign third-party launchers.
We can already count the cost of this failure of ambition, and it’s only going to get steeper. In 2023, the space sector was already worth $630 billion globally; by 2035, that value is forecast to increase to $1.8 trillion, a rise significantly larger than in proportion to the global GDP.
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