Charles to end Bermuda trip by launching UK Space Agency project

Britain's King Charles III will end his visit to Bermuda by officially launching the UK Space Agency's (UKSA) Project Nova to help track space debris.

Charles will visit the site of a new UKSA observatory on the island to hear about the initiative to oversee the installation of a global network of telescopes, across five sites, to help track old satellites, rocket stages, and other objects.

During his final day in Bermuda the king will also open the new Great Bay Coast Guard Station where he will hear about the Royal Bermuda Regiment's Coast Guard's critical work in protecting the island's territorial waters and safeguarding its marine environment.

He will view two new pieces of technology being used by the regiment – unmanned underwater vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Young people from the Junior Leader programme will discuss their involvement with the scheme and before leaving the King will award operational service medals to five members of the regiment for their commitment to the protection of the island.

On Friday evening the king attended a garden party and said to guests: "I am told to my amazement it is also the first time in Bermuda's four-hundred-year history that the islands have received a reigning King.

"I am terribly sorry it has taken so long!"

The event was staged at Government House, where the king has been staying during his three-day visit and which has been refurbished so recently he told guests that it still smells of fresh paint.

Raising a toast to Bermuda at the garden party, the king said: "I need hardly say that Bermuda, like all the Overseas Territories, is a most cherished and important member of the British family – with a friendship as solid as this so-called 'Rock'."