The UK invests in the exploration of space through the British National Space Centre (BNSC), which coordinates the UK’s civil space activity.

The BNSC has a budget of around £190m per year, 60% of which is spent through the European Space Agency (ESA) and it employs over 6,000 people.

It collaborates with NASA and ESA to send satellites and probes into space, like Cassini-Huygens, which was launched in October 1997. In January 2005, Cassini-Huygens became the first probe to land on the surface of Titan - Saturn’s largest moon - and started to collect data that may help us learn the origins of life on Earth. It is also the most distant object that has ever been studied by man.

British astronauts are trained through ESA. In 1991, Helen Sharman became the first Briton in space as part of the Russian Soyuz TM-12 mission. British-born Piers Sellers and Michael Foale have joint UK-USA citizenship and fly with NASA.