divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/78677?ns=guardianpageName=Science%3A+Nasa+veteran+offers+tips+to+British+students+on+how+to+walk+in+spacech=Sciencec3=The+Guardianc4=Space+exploration%2CSpace+%28Technology%29%2CHigher+education%2CScience%2CEducation%2CUK+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CEducation+Weekly+Education%2CTechnology+Gadgets%2CHigher+Educationc6=Ian+Samplec7=2008_11_22c8=1122134c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sciencec12=Space+explorationc13=c14=h2=GU%2FScience%2FSpace+exploration" width="1" height="1" //divpBritain may be scorned for refusing to send humans into space, but from next week it will have the next best thing: its own university course on how to be an astronaut./ppStaff at Leicester University have called in a former Nasa astronaut, Jeff Hoffman, a veteran of five space shuttles, to teach the course which will offer instruction on how to survive in space, coping with the psychological demands of long-term space travel and how to conduct a spacewalk without dropping your toolbox./ppHoffman, who took part in crucial spacewalks to fix cameras aboard the Hubble space telescope in 1993, will join Leicester as a visiting professor but will maintain his position in the astronautics department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology./ppThe government is reviewing its long-held opposition to human spaceflight and an announcement is expected weeks before the European Space Agency reveals at least four new recruits to its astronaut team. Britain has never had an astronaut train through ESA because its funding covers only robotic missions and ground-based astronomy./pp"There's a strong student interest," Hoffman said. "If Britain continues with that policy, these students will still be able to work in other capacities at the European Space Agency."/ppHoffman will draw attention to the future exploration of the solar system, which is likely to see humans working alongside robotic rovers that could be sent out from a moonbase to conduct experiments at remote sites. /ppThe Leicester course begins as the UK prepares for a high-level meeting of European science ministers, at which human space exploration will be discussed./ppMartin Barstow, head of physics and astronomy at Leicester, said: "I'm fed up with the way the UK keeps dodging the issue of being involved in human spaceflight. Our students don't need to be loaded with that baggage. /pp"They still have aspirations to be astronauts and they still want to get involved in the space industry, so why should the UK government's attitude be a handicap?"/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/spaceexploration"Space exploration/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/spacetechnology"Space technology/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/highereducation"Higher education/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sciencecountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660410112201400459684"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sciencecountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660410112201400459684" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/95177?ns=guardianpageName=Science%3A+To+infinity+and+beyond%3A+University+of+Leicester+launches+astronaut+coursech=Sciencec3=guardian.co.ukc4=Science%2CSpace+exploration%2CEducation%2CUK+news%2CLeicester+University%2CEducation+degree+courses+%28Education+subject%29c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CEducation+Weekly+Education%2CHigher+Educationc6=Ian+Samplec7=2008_11_21c8=1122069c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sciencec12=Space+explorationc13=c14=h2=GU%2FScience%2FSpace+exploration" width="1" height="1" //divpBritain may be scorned by other nations for steadfastly refusing to a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/spaceexploration"send humans into space/a, but from next week it will have its own university course on how to be an astronaut./ppStaff at the a href="http://www2.le.ac.uk/ebulletin/news/press-releases/2000-2009/2008/11/nparticle.2008-11-21.4852004914"University of Leicester/a have called in former a href="http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2002/hoffman-0313.html"Nasa astronaut Jeff Hoffman/a – a veteran of five space shuttle missions – to teach the course, which will offer instruction on how to survive in space, coping with the psychological demands of long-term space travel and a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/20/astronaut-space-repair-solar-panel"how to conduct a spacewalk without dropping your toolbag/a./ppHoffman, who took part in crucial spacewalks to fix cameras aboard the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, will join Leicester as a visiting professor but will maintain his position in the astronautics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology./ppThe UK government is reviewing its long-held opposition to human spaceflight and is due to announce its conclusions by the end of the year. The announcement is expected weeks before the European Space Agency reveals at least four new recruits to its astronaut corps. /ppA British astronaut has never trained through Esa because the UK's funding of space only runs to robotic missions and ground-based astronomy./pp"There's a strong student interest in this despite the fact that the British government has not supported human participation in spaceflight," Hoffman told the Guardian. "If Britain continues with that policy, these students will still be able to work in other capacities at the European Space Agency."/ppHoffman will draw particular attention to the future exploration of the solar system, which is likely to see humans working alongside robotic rovers, which could be sent out from a manned moonbase to conduct experiments at remote sites. /ppThe Leicester course begins as the UK prepares for a high-level meeting of European science ministers at which human space exploration will be discussed./ppMartin Barstow, head of physics and astronomy at Leicester, said: "I'm fed up with the way the UK keeps dodging the issue of being involved in human spaceflight. Our students don't need to be loaded with that baggage. They still have aspirations to be astronauts and they still want to get involved in the space industry, so why should the UK government's attitude be a handicap?/pp"Only a very few people are ever going to become astronauts, even if the UK was fully signed up to human space flight. Most people won't get to do it, but they will become highly qualified physicists and engineers and will get involved in the space industry in different roles. What we want them to come out with is a real grasp of practicalities of living and working in space and what we need to do in the future."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/spaceexploration"Space exploration/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/universityofleicester"University of Leicester/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/educationdegreecourses"Education degree courses/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sciencecountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227295035310112119280460919"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Sciencecountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227295035310112119280460919" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/43959?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Rolls-Royce+to+cut+2%2C000+jobs+after+aviation+downturnch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=Rolls-Royce+Group+%28Business%29%2CAutomotive+industry+%28Business%29%2CBusiness%2CRedundancy%2CPoliticsc5=Motoring%2CPersonal+Finance%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Marketsc6=Mark+Milnerc7=2008_11_21c8=1121534c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Rolls-Roycec13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FRolls-Royce" width="1" height="1" //divpBritish industry was hit by a further wave of job losses yesterday across the defence, aerospace and pharmaceutical sectors./ppThe aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce said it was planning to reduce its global workforce by up to 2,000 to cope with the global downturn and delays to the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A380./ppThe company has already opened talks over cutting 140 jobs at its Derby assembly and test facility and there are concerns there could be further job losses in Britain, which accounts for 60% of the company's 39,000-strong workforce./ppIn the defence sector, BAE Systems said it was cutting 200 jobs across plants within its armoured fighting vehicles business. The company's shipbuilding joint venture, BVT, is reducing the number of administrative positions by 300 - though BAE said natural wastage and vacancies meant it was only seeking 135 redundancies. /ppBVT, the company formed from the merger of VT shipbuilding with BAE's surface shipbuilding operations, is involved in constructing two new aircraft carriers and destroyers for the Royal Navy. BVT said the job losses were from cutting out duplication between the merged firms./ppElsewhere, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said 250 jobs would go in Macclesfield as part of a programme that will see 1,400 job losses and three plant closures in Europe over the next five years. The company said the job reductions, which will see factory closures in Spain, Belgium and Sweden, would improve the company's productivity and efficiency./ppMeanwhile, Arjowiggins began talks over the future of the 127 staff at Dartford Paper Mill in Kent./ppBAE Systems said its decision to shed 200 jobs at sites in Newcastle, Leeds, Leicester, Barrow and Telford had been prompted by a fall in the workload from the Ministry of Defences (MoD) armoured fighting vehicle programme. The announcement led to a political row, with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats attacking the government./ppLiam Fox, shadow secretary of state for defence, said: "Losing crucial defence jobs at a time when we are still involved in two conflicts abroad is testament to the incompetence and inefficiency of Labour's entire defence policy. The losers in this saga are British workers and British soldiers."/ppNick Harvey, Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: "The MoD's staggering incompetence over its armoured vehicle procurement programme now seems to be taking its toll on British jobs./pp"It is hard to believe that while our troops in Afghanistan are facing a crippling shortage of suitable vehicles, the jobs to make those vehicles are still being cut in the UK. The recession is already hitting jobs hard in Britain. The last thing we need is for this to be compounded by government incompetence."/ppAn MoD spokesman said: "BAE Systems continues to support our existing fleet of armoured fighting vehicles on operations and has the capacity to do so, but the terrain and threat in Afghanistan requires different types of vehicle such as Mastiff, Ridgback and Jackal, which are manufactured and integrated by different companies. We prioritise getting the right vehicles for current operations, with over pound;1bn spent on a wide range of vehicles." /ppRolls-Royce said it had looked at the potential impact of the global downturn as well as delays to the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787, for which it supplies engines. It said: "While it is too early to be specific about the precise implications for the number and location of job losses, the group's current assessment is that in 2009 it will be necessary to implement job reductions across the various sections and functions of around 1,500 to 2,000 on a worldwide basis, including the reduction announced today."/ppBernie Hamilton, of the Unite union, called the announcement "bitterly disappointing". "Rolls-Royce must take a measured approach ... In the past the company has cut too many jobs and struggled to meet the upturn in the market. Unite is urging the government to use the pre-budget report to support UK manufacturing and encourage companies to retain workers so when market conditions improve a skill shortage is not the outcome./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/rollsroycegroup"Rolls-Royce/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/automotive"Automotive industry/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/redundancy"Redundancy/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227227727892112100421654622"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227227727892112100421654622" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a