Near-earth Satellites

Lord Winston Excerpts

Monday 13th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

My Lords, France holds a 13.58% in the Eutelsat group through the Public Investment Bank, or BPI, and its sovereign wealth fund. His Majesty’s Government now have a 10.8% share in the Eutelsat group and retain their existing special rights and vetoes via a special share in OneWeb. His Majesty’s Government can appoint one director to the board of the Eutelsat group and one director to OneWeb’s board, so Great Britain is in control of the merger and OneWeb’s role in it.

[Lord Winston (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend raises a very important point, but is not it also true that one of the greatest problems facing astronomy is light pollution, as has been recorded recently by the Science and Technology Committee? Is not that a real issue for understanding astronomy better? Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren in many parts of the world that are overpopulated are unable to observe what is going on in the night sky, which is a serious disadvantage to our better understanding of satellites and astronomy, and giving attention to this problem.

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

The noble Lord is exactly right. It is a case of the urban and the countryside. If you live in the city, it is often very difficult, due to light pollution. I am fortunate enough to live in the Peak District, where we have no light pollution and we can see the stars. I am not sure that I have an answer to the noble Lord’s questions. When designing our modern cities, they could reduce the number of lights that are left on. When noble Lords go home this evening, they will see an awful lot of light pollution in the vicinity. As the noble Lord points out, planning for the future is the key, so that our cities do not produce so much light and young people can enjoy the delights of space.