So let's address the frivolous issue up front: the new UK Space Agency logo. Personally, I like it. It's clean; it's bold. It says "British"; it says "up!"
Some say it reminds them of the arrow graphics that featured in the opening titles to the old BBC sitcom Dad's Army. You can hear the catch phrases now: "Don't panic!" and "We're all doomed!".
Half-way through Tuesday's conference at London's QEII Centre where the logo was unveiled by British astronaut Major Tim Peake, my Blackberry started vibrating.
It was a question from the BBC newsroom:
"Jonathan, we're having a debate here about how you should say the name of the agency"
What was driving the question was whether there was some Nasa-like way of pronouncing the UKSA acronym, an important consideration if you are just about to read the name out on national TV or radio.
Should it be "Uck-sar", for example? So, I put it to the 300-plus people in the hall.
The suggestion didn't go down well, I don't think. Science Minister Lord Drayson said he preferred simply "UK Space Agency", but I'm not sure these things are controllable.
If sufficient numbers of people start using the "Uck-sar" pronunciation, it will stick.
What of the more serious aspects of Tuesday's space agency launch?
Well, I don't propose to go over all the arguments for an agency here. I've done that in previous postings, such as here and here.
Instead, I want to talk a little bit more about the government's response [1Mb PDF] to the Space Innovation and Growth Strategy report that set out a path to grow the UK space industry over the next 20 years?
I know the need for an agency was one of its key recommendations, but the Space-IGS was about more than just that.
The report, released in February, contained 16 suggestions that would help the sector to grab perhaps 10% of what is expected to be a £400bn worldwide market for space products and services in 2030.
These recommendations covered a range of topics from extending the roll-out of broadband by satellite to developing an indigenous Earth-observation capability (at the moment, the UK buys its Earth imagery largely from foreign suppliers).
The government on Tuesday accepted most of the recommendations, and has established a Space Leadership Council to try to push them through.
If you were looking for "new money" on the table today, it was the £40m that will go into the International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) at Harwell in Oxfordshire. The ISIC is intended as a place where academia and industry can spark off each other - to come up with new space ideas.
One of the things it is going to develop in the first instance is an "Earth observation hub", a low-cost centre to control satellites and to manage, process and visualise their data.
The other bit of money that appears new - or at least is now in black-and-white print so can't be ignored - is the £3m to help fund a spacecraft to demonstrate clever Earth observation techniques.
TechDemoSat would be built by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in Guildford. One instrument it is likely to carry will be capable of determining sea-surface roughness from the way GPS signals bounce off the water. That's smart. Who'd have thought GPS could be used in that way?
The money that wasn't announced, of course, was the doubling of the British contribution to Esa programmes over the next decade to more than £500m.
The Space-IGS called for it; the government simply brushed it aside in the present economic circumstances. No-one I spoke to was surprised by that.
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Moreover, a number of the journalists in the hall were pressing Lord Drayson about the £600m in cuts (the minister called them "efficiencies") the government has aimed at higher education, science and research budgets to cover the period to 2013.
Many wanted to know if there was a disconnect here. After all, universities are where the space scientists and engineers of tomorrow are trained. (I raise the issue in the audio attached to this posting).
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One final word about Major Tim. On Tuesday, it was announced he would become an ambassador for space careers in the UK.
He's been out of the news since joining Esa's astronaut programme last summer with five other rookies.
One of the reasons for the low profile of late has been the fact that all six newbies have been on an intensive Russian language course. They're now out of that classroom and doing the sort of practical training you'd expect of astronauts, such as learning how to control a Soyuz capsule.
There should be some great pictures in the coming month when the group goes on its first microgravity flight in the Novespace Airbus A300 based at Bordeaux.
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Watch this space.
Jonathan Amos | 19:43 UK time, Tuesday, 23 March 2010
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jonathanamos/2010/03/a-new-name-and-a-new-logo-for.shtml
