UK ‘needs minister for space’

MPs told review of R&D in sector needed to secure role in $600 billion-a-year global market

Methods, including a ‘minister for space’ and a review of the UK’s extra-planetary R&D efforts, have been suggested as ways the UK could secure geopolitical bargaining power and access to a $600 billion-a-year global market.

The UK has a space agency and a national space policy, and is planning to set up a national space council. But experts told the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on 17 September that more effort is needed.