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British See Red Over Green Paper About Space Programs

By Staff Writer | July 30, 2003

      The U.K. government has a number of problems with the Green Paper on European Space Policy issued jointly by the European Space Agency and the European Union, particularly the proposal to double public spending on space-related programs, such as the Ariane 5 rocket.

      In its July 28 response to the green paper, the U.K. government was critical of the ESA’s approach to space-related investment. “There are fundamental flaws in current ESA industrial policy in that the benefits of space programs have effectively been narrowly defined,” it argued.

      A UK official who did not want to be identified told SATELLITE TODAY: “We have not in the U.K. focused putting money into launchers or putting money into manned space.” Instead, the U.K. government favors funding projects that expand the use of space-based services, such as satellite broadband and navigation, among a wider user community to meet marketplace demand for services.

      For more on this story, see the Aug. 4 issue of SATELLITE NEWS. For more information on subscribing to PBI Media’s satellite newsletters, check out our Web site at http://www.telecomweb.com/catalog.