The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

MPs call for British manned space flight

But no need for UK Space Agency

See what The Register's experts have to say on application security

MPs have called on the government to give the lead to the UK's space industry and expand its vision to include funding launches and even manned spaceflight.

The Science and Technology Select Committee, in a report amusingly entitled Space 2007: A Space Policy, says: "We have been impressed and often surprised during the course of this inquiry by the range of activities undertaken in the space sector in the UK."

At the same time, it says, there is a funding gap in the UK, a lack of strategic leadership from government, and the potential for a "skills shortage" in the sector. Perhaps they'll need to follow other sectors and import aliens to fill the gap.

The agency notes that the UK does not fund launchers to any significant degree or get involved in manned space programmes. The committee calls on the government to adopt a more flexible approach "to ensure the best science can be funded, whether that be undertaken by manned or robotic exploration".

It also calls for "appropriate regulation for the space tourism industry", and says there should be no "in principle" block on funding the development of launches in future. It is not clear whether this is a subtle suggestion that tourism be used to underwrite genuine research.

The full report is available here. ®

Understand how application security is evolving

Don’t Miss

Win a Samsung C6625!

Reg Lucky Draw Windows Mobile handsets up for grabs

Palm_Pre_001_SMIs your cameraphone an oxymoron?

Pic Review iPhone 3G v iPhone 3GS v Palm Pre

Reg black vulture logoReg Mobile and Wireless newsletter is go! go! go!

Site news Email-tasm

Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter

Narrowcasting for the email classes