§ Mr. Michael McNair-Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Industry on what the European Space Agency's budget of £185 million is being spent; on what basis Great Britain's contribution has been decided; which countries are paying as much or more; and what work is being carried out in the British aerospace industry as a result of our membership of the ESA.
§ Mr. KaufmanAbout 85 per cent. of the budget of the European Space Agency is devoted to applications programmes covering development and proving of communication satellite system technology, a meteorological satellite, a spacecraft launching vehicle, and a space laboratory to be carried in the United States space shuttle. The remainder is being spent on scientific research in space; the United Kingdom contribution to this is the responsibility of the Science Research Council.
Contributions to the majority of the ESA programmes is on a gross national product basis, although the three most recently adopted applications programmes are being funded according to the national interests of the countries participating in each specific programme. Thus, the United Kingdom does not participate directly in the French-led launcher project and makes only a 6.3 per cent. contribution to the German-led Spacelab programme, but bears just over half of the cost of the maritime communications satellite development.
564WFrance and Germany are each contributing about twice as much as the United Kingdom to the total ESA budget for 1975.
Work on ESA projects in the United Kingdom aerospace industry is on a level proportional to our contribution to the agency and includes structural design and construction for satellites and other space systems, satellite on-board communication and other electronic equipment, sensors and attitude stabilising systems as well as computers and other equipment for ground stations; British firms are the prime contractors for three ESA satellites currently under development.