FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology today confirmed that space has been successfully integrated. The process took eleven months and four away days.
The UK Space Agency, formerly an executive agency with its own logo and its own kettle, is now fully absorbed into the department. Space follows. It is currently a shared drive folder, a laminated floor plan and a standing item on Tuesday-morning agendas. It sits after “Any Other Business” and before “Parking”.
What is space now?
Space is a corridor. It runs along the fourth floor, between the kitchenette and a stationery cupboard that is also, for audit purposes, a meeting room. It is 140 metres long. It has no windows, which the department describes as “consistent with the vacuum”.
Staff are reminded that the corridor is a shared resource. Please keep it clear of boxes.
“We have always said space is vast. We can now say it is 140 metres, with a fire door at either end. That is what delivery looks like.”
The quote is from Dr Helen Aspinall, Director of Orbital Integration Strategy. She added that the corridor had been “stress-tested” by a man carrying a ladder.
Orbit Efficiency Workstream
Orbit has been rebranded. It is now the Orbit Efficiency Workstream, a name that tested well with people who have never seen an orbit. The workstream has three full-time staff. One is on secondment from Facilities and is mainly there to open the doors.
A new mission patch has also been approved. It is a lanyard. It is blue, following a consultation in which blue was the only option. Staff are asked to clip it on, at which point they are considered to be in space. Passes expire at the end of the financial year.
The Moon
The Moon remains out of scope until Q3. The department stressed that it has not been cancelled, merely sequenced. Dependencies include a business case, a risk register and the booking of a room that holds more than six people.
Shetland and Cornwall remain strategic priorities for the UK space economy. Both have been added to the laminated floor plan. Shetland is an arrow marked “North”. Cornwall is an arrow marked “Down the stairs”.
Savings
The merger is expected to deliver savings of £1.2 million over three years. This figure is net of the lanyards, the laminator and a replacement kettle, which was purchased after the original was found to be an arm’s-length body.
Concerns have been raised that specialist expertise may be lost in the transition. Martin Pelham, Deputy Head of Corridor Operations, rejected this.
“People ask whether we have lost the agency’s knowledge,” he said. “We have not. We have moved it to a different tab. Some of it is in a Teams channel. Nobody has the link, but it is there.”
Professor Imogen Tarrant, a visiting fellow in public administration, described the restructuring as “textbook”. She later clarified that she had written the textbook, and that she had not meant it as a compliment.
Notes to editors
Space is open to press visits Monday to Friday, except Tuesdays before 11am, when it is in use. Visitors must sign in at reception and wear a lanyard. The corridor is closed on Thursdays for carpet cleaning.
