My father would be pleased about the launch of a British space agency

Just as a stopped clock is right twice a day, Gordon Brown’s government has finally done something worth celebrating. Britain is launching an executive space agency that will take control of the money spent on space by the different government departments and science funding bodies. It is a belated response to the surprising success of the UK space industry, which is growing at an average of 9 per cent per annum. At present, it employs 68,000 people and generates revenues of approximately £6.5 billion a year.

My late father, Michael Young, would have welcomed the creation of this agency, not least because he proposed it himself over 25 years ago. He is best known for having come up with the ideas for the Open University and the Consumers’ Association, but he was also a passionate space enthusiast and I’ve just finished making a Radio 4 documentary about his efforts to set up, among other things, a simulated Martian colony in Southwark.