ESA: April 2010 Archives

Sounds like a great idea, it inspires the kids, showcases the amazing engineering achievement that is spaceflight and helps to drum up electoral support for projects that are good photo opportunities for the politicians and makes voters feel good about their country

Sadly the likelihood of a European or even UK version of NASA tv isn't looking very likely a few weeks after this blog's clarion call for such a thing

So here's the bad news, the European Space Agency doesn't have any sort of broadcast licence and doesn't plan to get one and is happy for the time being having an arrangement with the rolling news channel euronews

The British Broadcasting Company would not even do a dedicated science channel and it turns out that the UK's digital terrestrial broadcast system Freeview is "tightly controlled" and the frequency spectrum is already allocated. Or maybe the problem will be rather like that which stymed US firm Hulu's internet tv hopes for the UK?  

Whatever the obstacles are outreach was a word heard often with the launch of the UK Space Agency but what will that be? A few school competitions? Can we expect the odd poster care of trade body UKSpace to raise awareness about the UK space industry, meaning that it does have one?

So what's the good news? Well we're about to enter a pretty turbulent political period here in the UK thanks to the self inflicted almost total destruction of our financial industry. That's the good news?! Well yes, the UK's ruling elite now knows we need manufacturing as much if not more than finance and no one can ignore that

Spaceflight is high tech engineering so it is going to be an open door to push on and an UKSAtv channel is one way of preparing a new generation to take up that challenge  

Hello UKSpace, are you receiving me, over? 

credit: CNES / caption: one day this will not just be a CGI video screengrab

This month, the European Space Agency director general Jean Jacques Dordain told me, the launch complex gantry for the Samara Space Center Soyuz 2-1a rockets flying from French Guiana should be finished and a maiden flight date should be announced. However Russia's deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov was not so sure when speaking to RIA Novosti this week, saying "This year, I hope, a milestone rocket...event will take place" [emphasis added]

This blogger would have asked Dordain at the CroySat-2 launch event but the director general was not available for questions, despite the success of that Kosmotras Dnepr rocket flight. Perhaps the Soyuz 2-1a flight will take place in time for the global space summit Ivanov's president, Dmitry Medvedev, has called for? Rather than the usual G8 suspects of the US, European countries, Russia and Japan Medvedev also sees exploration collaboration between it and the G8 near-peers, China, India and Brazil. In this article on the Russian Federal Space Agency website Ivanov pledges increases in spending for the country's space programme. Are you listening Mr Obama? 


credit: Federal Space Agency / caption: the gantry is constructed in Russia prior to shipping

Today Hyperbola is calling on the UK space industry, advocacy groups and political parties to back the idea of television programming from the European Space Agency and NASA to be broadcast in the UK via all means available. Outreach was highlighted as an area of importance for the recently launched UK Space Agency (UKSA)

Through a partnership of ESA, UKSA and the British Broadcasting Corporation (which is required by law to educate) a channel consisting of ESA output, past and ongoing BBC science programmes and perhaps special co-productions from industry (Virgin Galactic?) and UKSA could be broadcast via the terrestrial and satellite Freeview (and later Freeview HD) services, the internet (perhaps from UKSA's website) and cable and satellite providers should be legally required to carry the channel - as Sir Richard Branson has his Virgin Media cable company he should be enthusiastic to support an ESA/UKSA/BBC "Space Exploration channel"