News

The UK is getting a shiny new space agency

Posted on December 11th, 2009

We’ll keep this short and sweet as the BBC website covers all the necessary detail, but we did it! The UK is finally set to get it’s own dedicated space agency. Apparently they are on the lookout for a name and logo; how about “The British Space Organisation” and our logo?

Read more about these event at the BBC article “UK to have a dedicated space agency”.

Interview with Colin Hicks

Posted on May 23rd, 2009

Ex-Director General of the British National Space Center, Colin Hicks, gives an interview to the British Space Organisation on the UK’s involvement in Space Science and Development.

Press Release - Your Voice in Space Launch

Posted on May 22nd, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

British Space Organisation launch their ‘Your Voice In Space’ campaign in collaboration with Bournemouth university

(Bournemouth, UK - 22 May 2009) Today, the British Space Organisation launched it’s new youth orientated campaign ‘Your Voice In Space’. The BSO has teamed up with one of the best Media schools in the country at Bournemouth University in order to combine the knowledge and expertise of the students within the project.

‘Your Voice In Space’ is a new campaign, looking to raise awareness of cultural and global identity within the 14 – 24 year old age bracket, through the planned launch of a space probe.

The probe would be unique in that it would house a two-way transmitter that allows several media forms to be relayed to and from the probe. People are encouraged to answer weekly questions through the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as YouTube and the BSO main website. These answers are then ‘posted’ into space through the probe.

The initiative is also unique in that it is completely free. Many similar projects have gone before the Your Voice In Space campaign, but none have been this accessible to so many people worldwide.

The Bournemouth Media School is the only Centre for Excellence in Media Practice in the UK and offers courses such as Journalism and Communication and Computer Animation. The talents of the students studying for degrees in Television, Interaction Media Production and Scriptwriting have been employed by the BSO. These students are involved not only in the broadcasting surrounding the probe, but also in the day to day running of the websites and other content that the campaign requires.

Commenting on the launch, Rob Hawkes, Interactive Media student and Chief Technical Officer of the BSO, said; ‘This is a great opportunity for us as media students and we are very lucky to be involved in such a project. It also gives us valuable experience in that we can put what we have been studying into practice.’

A spokesman from the BSO also welcomed the launch, stating that; ‘We are always looking to conjure new interest in space science. One of our main aims is to get under 25s involved and interested in such subjects. The students at the Bournemouth Media School will be the perfect addition to the campaign, as they will be striving for the attention of their own peers.’

The BSO was established in 2009 to ‘rejuvenate interest in space science and exploration.’ As an organization they look to represent the interests of the UK science, commerce, education and industry in its research and studies.

- Ends -

Britain’s New Astronaut

Posted on May 20th, 2009

History was made today as the European Space Agency (ESA) announced their new batch of astronauts, the first batch in quite a long time. The main surprise of the announcement was the acceptance of Timothy Peake, a Briton, into ESA’s Astronaut Corps.

Major Peake is Britain’s first astronaut since Helen Sharman who flew to the Mir space station on a Russian rocket in 1991. There have been various other British born astronauts since Helen, however they have all flown as American citizens. Timothy’s previous life was as a helicopter pilot for the Army, followed by his role as a test-pilot. When asked of his new job as an astronaut he called it, “The pinnacle of my career”.

What’s currently unknown is the repercussions this decision with have on the Government’s plans for UK involvement with ESA, or a national space programme. I hope that it will encourage more interaction from the UK towards human space-flight, an area which has been historically hard to get involved in if you’re British. What can safely be said is that this is a very exciting time and signals the next stage of space exploration for Europe as a whole.

BSO Teams Up with Bournemouth University to work on an exciting new social project

Posted on May 6th, 2009

Welcome to the maiden voyage of the British Space Organisation blog. We’ll be using this area to keep you up to date with news relating to the organisation as well as the development progress of some of our projects.

If you are a little unsure about who we are and what we do then I would like to point you in the direction of our about page. You’ll find all you need to know there, and in the unlikely case that you don’t you can always get in touch with us. We’d be happy to help.

Now the introductions are out of the way I would like to talk a little about our most recent and exciting project.

The BSO has combined forces with Bournemouth University’s Media School to launch the Your Voice in Space project. The aim of the project is to send a very special probe into space. This probe will contain messages from the citizens of Earth compiled entirely from our website and a variety of social media outlets. So far we are working with YouTube, Twitter, and Yahoo! Answers to provide the functionality.

“Probes are old news”, I hear you say. You’d be completely right in saying that and this is why our probe will be fitted with a two-way transmitter that allows us to constantly update it with new messages. We’re also hoping to outfit the probe with a variety of cameras and sensors that will allow us to present you with some incredibly interesting data.

We won’t just be uploading any old message to this probe. Every so often we will be asking a single question on our website that anyone in the World can answer. Once submissions for a particular question are closed we will compile the results, display them on our website, and upload them directly to the probe to be immortalised in space.

This project has been built on the hopes that we will be giving people around the world a new platform to express themselves and compare with others. It has become all to common in today’s society for young people to only be aware of feelings and events in their own localised areas. We hope to change that.

As the project progresses we will update this blog. Watch this space!