British National Space Centre

Infobox Space agency
name = British National Space Centre


caption =
established = 1985
acronym = BNSC
administrator = David Williams [BNSC website [http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/content.aspx?nid=6006 "Director General"] , retrieved on October 31, 2007.] [BNSC press release, 02 February 2006 [http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/content.aspx?nid=6887 "New Director General for British National Space Centre"] , retrieved on October 31, 2007.]
budget = US$1 million (2004)
URL = [http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/ www.bnsc.gov.uk] The British National Space Centre (BNSC) is a British government body that coordinates civil space activities. It operates as a voluntary partnership of ten British government departments and agencies and research councils. The civil portion of the British space programme focuses on space science, Earth observation, satellite telecommunications, and global navigation (for example GPS and Galileo.)

Rather than being a full space agency as maintained in some other countries, the BNSC consists of around fifty civil servants on rotation from other government departments. Much of Britain's yearly space budget of £207 million was contributed by the Department of Trade and Industry (until the DTI was broken up in 2007) or controlled by the partnership rather than the BNSC, and over half of that budget flows directly to the European Space Agency. [http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/content.aspx?nid=5589 BNSC - How we work] , BNSC website, retrieved 9 March 2007: "In the year 2005-6, BNSC's partners spent £207 million on space programmes - about 65% of which was the UK's contribution to European Space Agency projects like Cassini-Huygens, Envisat and Galileo."] The BNSC claims credit for the UK space industry, but has no direct control over partnerships or industry budgets. The budget for BNSC headquarters is approximately US$1 million. [ [http://www.space.com/spacenews/archive04/auditarch_032904.html £500,000 British Audit Finds Strengths, Needs in Space Program] , Peter de Selding, Space News, 29 March 2004.]

The agency is headquartered in Westminster at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (a successor of the DTI), where it falls under the authority of science minister Ian Pearson. [BNSC press release, 28 June 2007 [http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/content.aspx?nid=6327&hl=machinery "Machinery of Government Changes"] , retrieved on October 31, 2007.] [BNSC website, [http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/content.aspx?nid=5549 "Space Minister"] , retrieved on October 31, 2007.]

=BNSC Partners [BNSC website, [http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/content.aspx?nid=5597 "BNSC Partners"] , retrieved on October 31, 2007.] =

* Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
* Department for Transport
* Ministry of Defence
* Foreign and Commonwealth Office
* Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
* Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
* Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
* Natural Environment Research Council
* Science and Technology Facilities Council
* Met Office

ee also

* National Space Centre
* Douglas Millard, [http://www.esa.int/esapub/hsr/HSR_36.pdf An Overview of United Kingdom Space Activity 1957-1987] , ESA Publications.

References

External links

* [http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/ British National Space Centre]