In late 2012, amidst a sagging economy, the U.K. government announced a sizable increase in space spending based on the assumption that such financial backing would spur Britain's already fast-growing space economy. The £1.2 billion ($2 billion) investment-a 25% increase over five years in Britain's contribution to the 20-nation European Space Agency (ESA)-led to the immediate establishment of a new satellite technology center at Harwell, Oxford, including ESA's telecommunications director, Magali Vaissiere, who relocated from Paris to run the large technology campus.
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