Lord Campbell of CroyMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what contributions they are making to research into a horizontal take-off space vehicle intended for intercontinental travel.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Lucas of Chilworth)My Lords, Her Majesty's Government recently announced agreement to join industry in funding work on a pre-feasibility study on HOTOL, a single stage into orbit horizontal take-off vehicle. Initially this is intended to be an unmanned space satellite launch vehicle, but industry's proposals include man-rating for intercontinental travel at a later stage.
Lord Campbell of CroyMy Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for that information. Can he give any estimate of when approximately the vehicle is likely to come into service? Is it to be used by commercial airlines, if it does move towards passenger service?
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, this particular phase—the pre-feasibility study—will take two to three years. If there is further progress then that will probably take another seven years. Therefore one is perhaps looking towards the end of this century or the beginning of the next century before one sees effective use made of it.
Lord Bruce of DoningtonMy Lords, is the Minister aware that if his reply to his noble friend may be taken as indicating that Her Majesty's Government are willing to make a contribution towards the project, then it is to be very much welcomed?
However, is it not the case that the Government are in a very embarrassing position in respect of that project? In the first place, when the appropriate industries were privatised it was to free them from the necessity of Government finance. Secondly, how can it be expected that private finance will be available for the project when, without any risk at all, money can be invested in industries that are being denationalised at a very low price?
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, Her Majesty's Government are in no embarrassing position whatsoever. It is the Government's policy to support innovation in industry, and that is what is being done 172 at this pre-feasibility stage. We hope that industry will make sufficient progress to bring opportunities for collaboration with other partners. We hope very much that the British Government will be involved in future collaboration.
§ Lord Elwyn-JonesMy Lords, can the noble Lord say in which part of the next century we may hope to see the developments that he was indicating? Some of us, alas, may not be there to witness them.
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, I am sufficiently optimistic about industry's endeavours in this matter and indeed about the longevity of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Elwyn-Jones, to assure him that he is likely to see much progress.
Lord Campbell of CroyMy Lords, can my noble friend, to reassure some of us, tell the House whether it will be possible for early warning systems in every part of the world to have a built-in and reliable method of identification, to make certain that such vehicles are correctly identified and are not mistaken for missiles?
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthMy Lords, that is a very interesting point and I shall draw it to the attention of my right honourable friends. I am sure that my noble friend will recognise that we are at this time at a very early stage of development.