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Willetts promotes UK space industry in Japan

Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts has touted the UK space industry for to the Japanese Economy Minister.

Mr Willetts has signed an agreement with Motohisa Furukawa for greater collaboration on space research and technology, and identification of potential commercial opportunities.

A key area of this will be earth observation technology, such as the NovaSAR programme or the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) run by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.

In partnership with the UK Space Agency, DMC provided vital data to assist with rescue efforts and damage assessment in the aftermath of the Japan earthquake and tsunami.

Mr Willetts is visiting Japan on a trade delegation with David Cameron, he said: “The UK space industry is a true success story, employing tens of thousands of highly skilled people and contributing around £7.5 billion to economy annually.

“However space is a global market and the UK’s success is dependent on international collaboration, so it’s vital we forge strong partnerships with countries like Japan that lead the way in technology.

“Today’s agreement paves the way for future space research and commercial cooperation between our two countries.

“This will drive growth by opening up opportunities for both the UK’s innovative companies and leading researchers.”

The agreement will help the UK to reach ambitious targets to grow its share of the world space market to 10% by 2030.

The UK has record of scientific collaboration with Japan on solar physics, including the most recent Japanese solar mission Hinode, on which of three science instruments is from the UK.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .