What would we need to make this happen? Is there anyone to stop the UK from having a space race from launching and landing at sea so the UK can launch and land closer to the equator? A mega structure of a floating launch pad fleet, so I'm thinking... Floating launch pad. Like the air craft carriers but of the space age. It's the only way I can see the UK getting to explore space.
Let's invest into developing engines and testing them on the UK mainland. I think the UK has some money.
They do not and would be starting from scratch...just the R&D would bankrupt the UK. Maybe if they gave Elon a castle he would sell you this:
How much money are we talking? To say, Britain explores a chance opportunity that would allow for a beacon in space based on gravity assist a bunch of planets to determine where this beacon goes? How much $ or £ are we talking? Let's try and detect things in Space and name it Hawking 1 or Newton 1 or something.
Starting from scratch would be way too expensive, Your best bet is to buy the tech off of Space X. Musk nearly went broke trying to figure it out and that was with a ton of government help.
OP I've got a good idea - let's pay off our £1.78tr national debt before we waste our money on **** like that?