LONDON - Britain is rethinking its decision to stay out of the manned space
race, the country's science minister said Thursday as the government outlined
plans to build an international space research facility.
Science Minister Ian Pearson said it was time to reconsider
Britain's 1986 decision not to invest in a manned
space flight program, predicting the world is going to witness "a new
international wave of new space exploration in the next 10 to 20 years.''
"What we want to do is review
the situation to make sure the U.K. does not get left behind,'' he told British
Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Pearson added that a review examining Britain's manned spaceflight options would come out either this year or next. In the short
term, Britain is likely to remain focused on robotic space exploration, he
said.
Pearson was speaking to mark the launch of Britain's civil space strategy, which includes a plan to build a research park in Harwell, a town
near Oxford and about 65 miles west of London.
Britain's space industry, which contributes some $13.7 billion to the country's
economy annually, is lobbying for a more assertive space program.
The country's previous space endeavors, including the
ill-fated attempt to land the Beagle 2 probe on Mars in 2003, have been carried
out in conjunction with the European Space Agency or NASA.
Some within the industry complain that the European
Space Agency, which gets about two-thirds of Britain's civil space budget,
does not have any major facilities in Britain. The agency, headquartered in Paris, has operations and research centers in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy.
The strategy paper said Britain is also exploring the
possibility of cooperating with other "emerging space-faring countries,''
such as China, India and Brazil.
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