HC Deb 20 June 1990 vol 174 cc919-20
11. Mr. Fearn

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations he has received concerning the future funding of the Juno project; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

The organisers of the Juno project have requested Government funding. Juno was conceived as a private sector venture to put a British astronaut into spece on the basis of commercial and media sponsorship. I could not justify diverting resources from the Government's own space programme which has quite different goals, notably Earth observation and telecommunications.

Mr. Fearn

Does the Minister agree that the Juno project involves more than simply putting a woman from the Mars bars company or a service man from the British Army into space? Is he aware that microgravity experiments were to be conducted and that they would have had a bearing on both AIDS and arthritis? Would not the resultant savings to the health service amount to more than the £12 million for the want of which the project is in jeopardy?

Mr. Hogg

I doubt the hon. Gentleman's conclusion. What I am certain about is that the Government are right to target our spending programme as we are targeting it at present — to use space for specific useful purposes. I do not think that Juno is a proper candidate for public money in that context.

Mr. Batiste

Does my hon. and learned Friend agree that research in space is a vital ingredient of the high-tech industries of the future, where many important technologies will be field tested? As the cost of those experiments is so high, it is vital that Government funds are not diverted from matters that we deem to be of strategic importance to the United Kingdom.

Mr. Hogg

My hon. Friend is entirely right. The Juno mission is not of strategic importance to the United Kingdom. What are of strategic importance are the polar platform and the Earth observation programme, to which we are subscribing, and the latest European Space Agency telecommunications satellite programme, to which we are also subscribing. We are putting our money where it matters.