UK set to significantly expand involvement in space projects

At this week’s ministerial meeting for the European Space Agency (ESA) member states in Naples, science and universities minister David Willetts announced that the UK will contribute to the development of the service module for NASA’s Orion capsule, the manned system the US agency is developing to take astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) and on future manned missions.

NASA is planning the first Orion trip to the ISS for 2017, and ESA has agreed to develop the service module for the spacecraft from its Automated Transfer Vehicle, the unmanned ‘space truck’ with which it has been resupplying the space station since 2008. This forms ESA’s contribution to the ISS project, which it fulfils ‘in kind’, by developing and supplying equipment and services, rather than financially, for the period 2017–20.

The UK is to contribute €20m (£16m) to the project — the first time it has contributed to manned exploration. This is a one-off payment, Willetts explained, to allow British expertise in propulsion systems and telecommunications to be exploited.