On 26 April 1962, the United Kingdom made history by becoming only the third country in the world to successfully launch and operate a satellite, Ariel 1, in conjunction with NASA. In doing this, the United Kingdom placed itself at the front of the “space race” with the ability to stand alongside and compete with the two superpowers of the day.

As the technological revolutions of the last thirty years have shown, outer space can be as valuable as solid ground for the Earth’s nations but until last week the United Kingdom has been falling behind, compared to countries such as China, India and Japan which have developed well-funded and successful space programs over this period.

No longer.