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Scotland might see space flight launches
THE UK GOVERNMENT is hoping to breathe some life into Blighty's space travel plans by removing regulatory burdens and injecting £10 million in cash investment.
£10 million, in least in terms of space travel, sounds like small change and when it comes to the space travel agency market is unlikely to be enough to pay for Richard Branson's anti-gravity beard shaver, but according to the Government, its plenty enough to boost the UK Space Agency and kick start the sort of industry that the UK needs.
In a statement the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, said that the money will boost space science research and discovery, and importantly for anyone that has already packed their moonboots, holidays on the moon.
"[We are] Committed to working with the international regulatory authorities to enable space tourism operations in the UK and define regulations for novel space vehicles that offer low cost access to space," it said.
Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said that the UK space industry is worth £7.5 billion, in theory, and added that the £10 million would be a good start on the path to raising that sort of money.
"The UK space industry is worth an estimated £7.5 billion and is an important driver for economic growth," he said. "This is why we've earmarked £10 million in the Budget to start a national space technology programme and committed to reducing the regulatory burden on industry."
However, he was looser of lip in an interview with the Daily Mail, where he explained that Scotland is already earmarked as the launch site for any space holidays, and that Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is the preferred carrier of choice.
"It would be great to see vehicles being launched from the UK again - to see Virgin Galactic launched from Lossiemouth, for example," said Willetts.
"We're already talking to Virgin Galactic. I think it's fair to say Richard Branson is very pleased with the way through, so now we're going to have to work through the detail. I hope we can have the new regime ready in good time. There should be no regulatory obstacle for him to operate from the UK if he decides to do that as his own commercial decision." µ
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Battles organized by Catholic Religon.1400s' Saw largest battle, king Henry VI from England ?fought king Edward IV, Losing 25,000 Men on Cold Winter afternoon,with automated crossbows, vs. kids with pointee' sticks.
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Dear Sir Richard,
You may be responsible for more environmental pollution than any other single person.
Virgin Galactic puts the cream on top of your title of ‘The World’s Worst Polluter’.
You could make 2 ‘phone calls, raise £300 million and transform yourself into ‘The World’s Greenest Personality’.
That’s all that is needed to get the first-of-a-kind (FOAK), 100 MWe, Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) built, to demonstrate to the UK Government that, with this single technology, we can not only meet our carbon targets with time to spare, but we can show how it can solve many of the worst problems facing humankind.
Kirk Sorensen, the world’s leading authority on LFTRs, was consulted for the 23 March 2011, New Scientist Article, ‘Thorium reactors could rescue nuclear power’. Why don’t you and your advisors meet with Kirk, to get the fine detail of this ‘Silver Bullet’ solution to the supply of safe, cheap, eco-friendly energy, to everyone on the planet (at developed world standards) forever.
You can leap frog Bill Gates; he’s going nowhere, putting his money into the Travelling Wave Reactor (TWR).
I once read that you always try to launch from a location as near to the equator as you can possibly get (to get the maximum rotational energy from the spinning earth I think).
I'm not 100% sure though if that's only important for stuff destined to go into geo-stationary orbit...
But at the very least for such stuff, launching from Scotland would be like the worst idea possible :-)
I heard one of those UK space chaps on the radio this morning and his comments were a bit more down to earth than the title here suggests. The £10M will be used to expand the spacey things we are good at here. Such as building satellites and parts for other nations space missions. The bit about Scotland being a launch pad was basically that in theory the North of Scotland might make a not bad launch site. But the money isn't going on that.
yea right, like its going to cost a hundred million to into space from Uk.
Who are you kidding its going to cost at least 80 billion a year to sustain space flights from the UK, Fools