Admittedly, this is – excuse the pun – “out there”. It’s not the first thing on people’s minds when they think of Welsh independence, or even the present economy. The powers and freedom independence bring shouldn’t be stuck in a box of being exclusively about the economy, culture or social justice.
“Regulation of outer space activities” is one of the miscellaneous reserved matters in the Wales Act 2017. It’s yet one more “minor” area Wales would take responsibility for upon independence. There are opportunities here – independence or not – and events the other side of the Atlantic are making it possible.
Public funding for NASA has always been controversial. President Obama unveiled a new National Space Programme in 2010 which not only saw the retirement of the Space Shuttle, but a shift towards the use of privately-designed and funded launch vehicles.
With US astronauts reliant on the Russian Soyuz system to reach the International Space Station for the time being – an embarrassment if ever there was one for the US – there’s unlikely to be a large gap between the Shuttle’s retirement and a replacement.
Although deep space and manned exploration will still be state-funded and science-led; near-Earth ventures, telecommunications and things like space tourism will be led increasingly by private industry.
Private involvement is space flight isn’t new. Arianespace have developed rockets for the European Space Agency since the 1990s, while big aerospace companies like Lockheed Martin and Boeing have developed rockets to deliver US military satellites into orbit.
It’s human spaceflight that’s the next frontier here. Virgin Galactic are due to launch the first commercial space tourism flights in the 2020s from their base in New Mexico. However, this follows a series of delays and technological issues which underline the challenges involved in this experimental field.
There are also several dozen smaller companies developing their own private spacecraft, whether to compete for the $10million X Prize for sub-orbital flight (won in 2004), or the current $30million X Prize to land a rover on the Moon, which currently has around 30 entries from around the world.
