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    Abolishing the UK’s independent space agency could be a mistake
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    Abolishing the UK’s independent space agency could be a mistake

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    1. rickyrulesNEW on

      People in UK focus on anything and everything except STEM – be it academics or research

      The kids( except the Chinese, Indian origin kids) are totally not into it.

      I dont see a bright future for UK

    3. Lewri on

      Being Reddit, no one is actually going to open the article before giving their uneducated opinions, so here is some context:

      The UKSA is currently an executive agency of the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT), meaning it is independent in terms of its management and budget. The plan is to absorb it into its parent (DSIT), while maintaining its name, brand, and role. This is to cut the overhead costs associated with being run as a completely separate organisation. It is not being abolished, its independent nature is being abolished.

      When people think space agency, they think launch vehicles and astronauts, but that isn’t the only things a space agency does. The UKSA managed the budget for both UK contributions to ESA, as well as investment in UK projects. This includes things such as grants to UK space companies. The UK is a world leader in the space industry in terms of satellite technology development.

    4. Adeldor on

      My moment for a lament …

      No longer living in the UK, my impressions are now necessarily 2^nd hand, even with family there. Still, it’s clear the country’s aerospace/engineering/industrial economy (and other facets not relevant to this discussion) are in long term decline. From as far back as Spitfire, through Comet, Vulcan, Lightning, TSR-2, VC-10, Black Arrow, Lynx, etc, now only Rolls Royce jet engines and smallsats shine from afar on the metaphorical radar (heh, literal radar owes much to the UK’s engineering past too).

      What larger roles the UK’s aerospace industry does play (eg Eurostar geostationary satellites) are subsidiary to larger entities – more often than not defense related. Even OneWeb satellites were designed in France, built in the US, and launched by a variety of foreign operators (Roscosmos, ISRO, and ironically SpaceX).

      With all that, I wonder what effect abolishing the UK’s independent space agency will have in real, economic terms.