The UK cannot afford to exclude itself from this effort indefinitely. The days of the national agency are gone, and the space race is over. This is no longer a surrogate battlefield for a cold war but, instead, an opportunity to co-operate in a shared global vision. For too long the question has been “Why should we do this?” when instead, as a country, we should be asking: “Why aren’t we doing this?”Over the last two years I have investigated a variety of options with key personnel at Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Center, the British National Space Centre, the European Space Agency and the National Space Biomedical Research Center. However, the knowledge base and expertise in this area are expanding rapidly. The launch of the first components of the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of last year marked the beginning of a new chapter in manned space flight operations and the world’s first truly pan-international effort in this field.

Once fully operational, ISS will serve as a dedicated physical and space life sciences research platform.There are two certainties: the space programme will continue to gather momentum, and the field of space biomedical research will continue to mature. It is therefore an unusually opportune time to be considering establishing a research facility that is dedicated to space life sciences and biomedical research.The field of space biomedical research is in its infancy and thus has, until recently, remained largely unnoticed by the scientific community. The European Space Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have been attempting to further the involvement of the UK in its operations. It has been recognised that these lengthy ventures will require global co-operation and, to this end, existing agencies have been encouraging involvement in ISS and the future of the manned space flight effort. It is an effort from which the United Kingdom has thus far excluded itself.The Advanced Projects team at Nasa is also actively planning a 1,000- day manned mission to Mars, and proposals for establishing a lunar outpost are also under consideration. In addition, this unique laboratory will provide insight into everyday medical problems and yield new healthcare technology.
ISS represents the first truly international effort in manned space flight operations and promises to tax the joint resources of the American, Russian, Canadian, Japanese and European space agencies. It is hoped that through this venture the international community will further its understanding of the effects of long-duration space flight upon the human body and develop new methods for sustaining life in that hostile environment.

Already seven stories high, once complete it will be visible from the Earth’s surface with the naked eye; literally a new star on the horizon. One of the principal aims of this 15-year project is to provide a platform for space biomedical and life sciences research, in preparation for future deep-space missions. The International Space Station (ISS) represents one of the most ambitious efforts in space operations yet undertaken. The result is a fiasco that diminishes the whole political process..

THE INTERNATIONAL community stands poised before perhaps the most exciting chapter in manned space flight operations since the Apollo era. And third, he has not worked out how he reconciles those objectives with his obsessive desire to make every level of government conform to his own ideas. Second, he has a Zarathustrian belief in the politician as hero – the lone champion of rights and responsibilities who saves the world from ideology. Unfortunately he wants the personality in question to agree with him in every particular. The only justification for having a mayor directly elected is the freedom that it gives to the successful candidate.

But Tony Blair wants whoever runs London to be tied hand and foot to Downing Street’s apron strings.The London mayoral election – made, like everything New Labour does, in Mr Blair’s image – reveals the truth about the Prime Minister’s view of politics. First, he does not like the Labour Party, and wants the new Greater London government to be freed from the taint of socialism. Candidates who run on their individual merits are by nature footloose. Nobody who really believes in a British form of representative democracy will want to foster the idea of the individual’s ascendancy over a party programme.Yet, on all the evidence, Tony Blair really does want personality to transcend politics. When Lyndon Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater by the biggest margin in American history, Lindsay joined the Democrats. The tradition of mayors with no philosophical guidance apart from personal prejudices, is not encouraging. Mayor Lindsay, the charismatic “White Knight” of New York, abandoned the liberalism on which he was elected in order to propose Barry Goldwater as Republican presidential candidate.