The European Space Agency (ESA) was created in 1975, by the merging of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) and European Space Research Organisation (ESRO). ESA had ten founding member states: Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Today it is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space and headquartered in Paris. ESA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station programme); the launch and operation of uncrewed exploration missions to other planets and the Moon; Earth observation, science and telecommunication; designing launch vehicles; and maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching and further developing this launch vehicle. The agency is also working with NASA to manufacture the Orion Spacecraft service module that will fly on the Space Launch System. The European Space Agency Science Programme is a long-term programme of space science and space exploration missions.

The Open University was established in 1969. Then Prime Minister Harold Wilson was interested in using technology, such as television, to make getting a university education more accessible to people from lower income groups. MP Jennie Lee had been appointed as the Minister for the Arts in 1963, and Wilson charged her with the project of making the Open University a reality. The first Open University television programme was broadcast in 1971. Within ten years over 6000 radio and television programmes had been produced. From 2000, when the OU launched its online library resources, through to partnerships with iTunes and the creation of a social media site, the university has made use of the opportunities created by the internet. As of its 50th anniversary in 2019, the OU had 174,000 students.