According to Roy Dommett, the authorities were aware of the commercial potential of satellite launches, but there were constant disagreements over who would pay the development costs.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Magazine | Britain's first space pioneers

As an interesting new book by Alan W. Brown, Enterprise Software Delivery: Bringing Agility and Efficiency to the Global Software Supply Chain (Addison Wesley, 2012), points out the consequent shift from software development to software delivery, combining constant innovation and control at the enterprise level.

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However, the discovery segment remained fairly constant at an average of about 4.5 years, he adds, while the development portion rose from 7.1 years a decade ago to 9 years.

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