The sky is the limit

In his valedictory address to the Commons last week Boris Johnson extolled Britain’s entry into the space age under his premiership, with launch pads in Cornwall and Shetland. The UK space sector is building the service and habitation modules for the Lunar Gateway space station. Meanwhile, Nasa chiefs arrived for talks with the UK Space Agency regarding cooperation in the Artemis project, which seeks to return humans to the Moon by 2025, ahead of establishing a permanent base there. That could conceivably see a Briton on the lunar surface and Tim Peake, the astronaut who spent time on the International Space Station, says he wants to be the first. Whether his luggage will end up at the right place on his return is another matter.