BOOM! Think of the hospitals that could be built for £350 million, picture all the research projects which could be set up into curing life-threatening diseases.

And set them against a second-long display of pyrotechnics around 13,000 feet into the air over French Guiana.

Ariane 5 self-destructed when it veered off course just 40 minutes into its maiden flight.

With it went 10 years' work by British scientists who played a key role developing the multi-million pound satellites it was carrying to measure solar winds.

And yet the European Space Agency is still planning to go ahead with another launch in a few months.

Surely it's time to stop and consider which is the more important - tackling the earth's massive environmental problems or spending millions polluting outer space with a motley collection of satellite hardware.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.