M.A.S.A. - Her Majesty's Space Agency

Her Majesty's Space Agency (MASA) gets ready for blast-off

Move over Nasa: Her Majesty's Space Agency is about to reach for the stars.
Britain is to get its own version of the U.S. space programme.
The organisation - which could be nicknamed 'Masa' after its American counterpart - could lead at least three missions by 2030, either with European partners or the U.S., India or China.
The shortlist to name it has already been drawn up with two choices in the running - Her Majesty's Space Agency and the less catchy UK Space Agency.
The details were revealed yesterday at the launch of a 20-year strategy, designed to make Britain a major player in space science.

The Space Innovation and Growth report, unveiled by Science Minister Lord Drayson, also recommended that rules preventing the launch of spacecraft from the UK be swept aside.
This would allow Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and other space tourism firms to set up bases here.


Link to Article

Ah there is another thread on that:

UK Broadening Their Space Horizons

fantastic news for us Brits, we are 50 years behind the rest of the world.

As for the name, Im not a big fan of the 2 proposed names so far, my favourite 2 are...
1) M.O.S - the Ministry of Space
2) B.A.S.E - British Astronomical and Space Exploration

this can only be good news

reply to post by danzi


Not really as Britain has participated in space since the beginning - only in a rather uncoordinated "British" kind of way. Britain participates in ESA, for example and had deep involvement in space science - the unglamerous side.

I do welcome this development and hope that the government can actually find the balls to make this work.

Regards

Sorry as there is a thread already on this topic i shall have to close this one,
Thank you for posting and please feel free to add your info to the ongoing thread linked above,

Asala,



[edit on 11-2-2010 by asala]