UK Space Agency Launched 125
krou writes "Today saw the launch of the new UK Space Agency (UKSA), which will officially come into being on the 1st of April. Its stated goal is to lead to more coherency in space policy, and better decision making, by gradually assuming control over the various budgets and management functions of various government departments and science funding councils. Lord Drayson, the minister for science and innovation, said that 'People in the UK are not aware of just how good Britain is both at space research and in terms of our space industry; [a space agency] is going to make people more aware of that. But in practical terms, it's going to make the decision-making by government in all aspects of space policy much more joined up, better co-ordinated — a single point within government which has responsibility for making sure that we get everything in alignment such that the space research we do, the space industry that we're building, fulfils its true potential.' The government also announced that it is adding £24m to the £16m put up by business to create an International Space Innovation Centre at Harwell in Oxfordshire."
Re:UK Space Agency Launched (Score:5, Interesting)
Not only that, but we made some interesting indigenous technologies of our own; for instance we made the worlds only RP-1/HTP orbital rocket. This propellant combination was storable at normal temperature and pressure, hypergolic (if you preheated the HTP, which you did anyway in an expander cycle) was very efficient at driving turbopumps, and non-toxic. The engines that used it were also very reliable, and didn't suffer a single failure in over 100 firings.
Buy hey! Here comes a Tory government! We can save the nation pennies if we can this innovating technology! Go self-interest!
Fucking Tories.
Re:I was hoping it would be called... (Score:3, Interesting)
I was hoping it would be called Her Majesty's Space Agency (HMSA), it sounds much better then UKSA.
(Great British Space Agency) GBSA* also sounds better. They picked the worst possible name from those available...
*Yes, yes I know... [wikimedia.org] but how much input will come from Northern Ireland, really?