I am delighted to be here today for the first meeting of the Space Strategy
Council. I am even more pleased to be present for your discussion on the
draft UK Space Strategy.

You should all be aware that very soon after I became the UK Space
Minister, I came to the view that the potential benefits from using space
have been undervalued by many people – not least people in government.
I have argued strongly in favour of greater and more targeted support for
space. But my arguments have always been focused on using space as a
tool – for scientific, commercial and environmental purposes. They have
also been focused on the importance of communicating the value of what
we are doing to a wide range of audiences.

I know that over the past few years we have moved a long way in
achieving recognition of what we have been doing in space. Indeed this
last year we have secured more press coverage for the achievements of
UK space than ever before with the successful launches of ENVISAT and
MSG-1. Next year Mars Express and the UK led Beagle 2 lander should
firmly establish the UK space science community in public consciousness
as doing world leading research in areas which they find exciting.

I value greatly the benefits we draw from space missions for scientific
understanding of the universe, the earth, and the origins of life. But we
need to do much more in delivering “down to earth” benefits from space
by exploiting and delivering services based on space infrastructure and
space derived data.

We need see people building successful commercial enterprises serving
the public and private sectors which draw on our investment in space.
We need to ensure that space truly is “serving the citizen” in every
conceivable way.

Telecomms, global positioning and earth observation – separately, but
especially in combination – have the potential to do just that. So do
technologies which originate in space missions undertaken for the sake of
science, but which have “down to earth” applications.

Our commitment to Galileo came about because governments recognised
the potential of accurate global navigation services for economic and
social benefit. Our support for the Global Monitoring for Environment
and Security (GMES) initiative is based on our belief in the
environmental, economic and social benefits which GMES will offer.

We have been doing well – but there are many more opportunities to be
seized. We have done well in the past in staying out of disastrous
prestige projects, but now we need to seize the opportunities opening up
in space.

I hope that the changes we have introduced during this year:

  • in the organisation of UK funding for space;
  • in setting up this Space Strategy Council;
  • in having BNSC hosted by DTI’s Innovation Group; and
  • in setting out new Space Strategy objectives

will help by making our partnership through the BNSC even more
effective. BNSC is the means by which we work together. BNSC brings
together in one partnership organisation all of our interests in civil space.
BNSC is not “them” – not the DTI nor the people based in Buckingham
Palace Road with Colin Hicks – but “us” – the whole partnership.

Equally the UK Strategy for Space, in its development and delivery,
needs to be our Space Strategy. So I hope that, beginning with your
discussions today, this Space Strategy Council will make key
contributions to the development and delivery of the new Strategy. The
Strategy should unite us in a common purpose – to serve the citizen better
through what we do in space.

It is that thinking which lies behind the objectives which I set out last July
for the new Space Strategy. I want to maintain and enhance the UK as:

  • an internationally recognised centre for world-class space and environmental sciences and a sought after partner in international co-operation;

  • a leading user of space systems throughout the economy, to stimulate increased productivity in government, scientific communities and the market;

  • a foremost developer of leading edge space-based systems allowing innovative enterprises to deliver increased wealth and improvements in the quality of our lives.

By so doing, we will all ensure that space is used to maximum advantage
“serving people” as “a tool – for science, enterprise and the
environment”.