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United Kingdom and Space Transportation Systems

During the 1960's and early 1970's the UK embarked on a national space launch program which culminated in the launch of the Prospero scientific satellite by a Black Arrow launch vehicle on 28 October 1971. However, for many years further UK interests in launch vehicle development were transferred to ELDO and ESA programs. Britain made an important contribution in the establishment of the European Launcher Development Organisation, with Blue Streak as its first stage, and we also played an important part in establishing the European Space Research Organisation. By 1965 the UK was proceeding with the preliminary work on the small satellite launcher based on Black Knight—sometimes known as Black Arrow. Work continued on ELDO, and preliminary work is being done on a small satellite launcher, sometimes called Black Arrow. Work is also going on at both Westlands and Bristol Siddeley, Blue Streak launcher, which was adopted by the European Launcher Development Organisation and which has proved very reliable, both in its static firings at Spadeadam and in the three launchings so far carried out at Woomera, in Australia. Moreover—and this is perhaps even more remarkable—all 21 Black Knight firings have been successful. The UK was thinking about and planning for space in the early 1950s. In 1955 we placed the contract for Blue Streak, then for a military vehicle and now the first stage for the European Launcher Development Organisation. Also in 1955, we placed a contract for Black Knight, a rocket designed to put into orbit a payload of about 150 lb. purely for research. These two contracts were placed, as I have said, and the research and production went ahead. Then, in 1957, we began shooting Skylark research rockets 1037 for scientists to gather operational experience. A Skylark research rocket could go up to 100 miles carrying a payload of 250 lb. In 1960, after Blue Streak had been cancelled as a military weapon, Mr. Peter Thorneycroft, temporarily out of this House, did an imaginative thing. Mr. Thorneycroft found that he had Blue Streak on his hands, and he took extremely good action for this country by creating E.L.D.O. He realised that this was the moment, if ever there was a moment, and perhaps the last chance, when European nations could get together and produce a European space launcher. The Conservative Government were also responsible for launching E.S.R.O. for scientific research. In 1962, we took part in experiments with Ariel I, an American satellite with British participation in its machinery. In 1963, we authorised the construction of a British satellite, U.K.3, which was an entirely British experiment designed and to be built in Britain. It is to contain 2,000 transistors and some 8,000 other components. Perhaps we can be told when the Government expect U.K.3 to be in the air. In 1964, we took part in Ariel II, another Anglo-American experiment with a satellite. In 1964 also we authorised during the summer the go-ahead with the rocket Black Arrow, a development from Black Knight. political mismanagement that beset the whole of the British launcher programme. I Black Arrow R4 is Britain's only surviving satellite launch vehicle. In 1971, its predecessor, R3, carried out the only launch of a spacecraft by a British vehicle. http://www.spaceuk.org/ http://www.spaceuk.org/rocketry.htm February 1967 vol 740 cc479-80 480 § 5. Mr. Marten asked the Minister of Aviation if he will now give details of the Government's national space programme of satellite technology based on the Black Arrow launcher. § Mr. Stonehouse The programme is designed to improve our technological capability by developing and ground-testing satellite components and subassemblies and then testing them in space. It provides for development of the Black Arrow launcher to be completed by the end of 1969 and experimental satellites launched at approximately yearly intervals thereafter. The firing on 4th August 1967 was the first in which the French second stage of the E.L.D.O. launcher had a live motor. The Blue Streak first stage, including all its telemetry and other electronic equipment functioned entirely satisfactorily, but the second stage did not ignite. A study by the French and E.L.D.O. authorities, assisted by experts from the Royal Aircraft Establishment and Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, has established that a fault occurred in the electrical power supply of the second stage. A modification was incorporated in the next vehicle. At the launching of this vehicle on 6th December, however, a fault again developed in the second stage. I await details. § Mr. Dalyell asked the Minister of Technology if he will make a statement on the F6/2 firing at Woomera. § Mr. Stonehouse The launching took place on 6th December and was partly successful in that whilst the stage one (British Blue Streak) is understood to have functioned entirely successfully a failure occurred in the second stage of the rocket. Prospero was a British scientific satellite launched from the Woomera site in Australia aboard a Black Arrow rocket. It was used to test equipment for future satellites and to conduct a scientific experiment to measure the incidence of micrometeoroids. It had an external shape similar to a pumpkin, with an equatorial diameter of 1.2 m and a height of 0.7 m. Its anticipated life was 100 years. This launch made the United Kingdom the sixth nation to put a satellite into orbit on its own rocket. Black Arrow Small Satellite Launcher Although the ground-based Blue Streak had been abandoned in favour of the submarine-launched US Polaris missile, work had been going on at the former Royal Aircraft Establishment in the UK to develop other rockets: Black Knight and Black Arrow. The research program employing the Black Knight rocket came to an end with the last firing in November, 1965, but a decision whether to complete development of the Black Arrow satellite launcher had not yet been taken. Work in industry on Black Arrow is continuing and technical progress is satisfactory. Black Arrow was capable of putting a satellite in orbit but the project was running out of time. In July 1971, the Government decided to cancel the project and so the first launch was also the last. On 28 October 1971, the Prospero satellite was blasted into orbit by a Black Arrow launch vehicle. It was the only time a British satellite has been launched on a British rocket. Future legacy Although many were saddened by the cancellation of Black Arrow, the legacy of the UK's space pioneers lives on. The technology of the rocket itself was reused in the European rocket programme - now flying as the Ariane series of launchers. there are two main space European organisations: ELDO, which is the launcher, and ESRO which is the research organisation. ELDO is in principle designed to provide the vehicle and ESRO to ensure its use scientifically and provide the scientific load. We played a leading part in setting up these organisations, on the ground that it was much better to do so internationally rather than on a restricted national basis. The original estimate of the cost of the first ELDO programme was £70 million, and our share was 38.79 per cent. This is higher than our proportionate share on the basis of a comparison of gross national products, because a large part of the work is being done in this country. It was thought that the programme would take five years to complete. While it was in progress, studies were to be made to help towards possible further programmes, and these studies are now nearing completion. This was the first project of its kind, and time has shown that the original estimates were optimistic. It must be borne in mind that more powerful launchers of the type under study, as well as an equatorial launch site, would be necessary to put an operational communications satellite into a geostatic orbit. The United Kingdom and ELDO have the splendid range and supporting facilities at Woomera. However, for certain purposes, such as satellite communications, there are great advantages, as I have indicated, in equatorial orbits, and the Woomera site is 31° south of the Equator and not well placed for easterly firings, which are best to place a satellite in equatorial orbit. ELDO is, therefore, giving some consideration to the possibility of an alternative launching site nearer the Equator, possibly in the far North of Australia, possibly in French Guiana where France is developing a launching site. But all this adds to the complications and expense of ELDO. Ariel Ariel 1, the world's first international satellite, was designed and built by NASA and carried six UK experiments. These were designed to study the top of the Earth's atmosphere and the radiation coming from the Sun. It was the first in a series of five satellites and launched on 26 April 1962. Five of the experiments on board were built by UCL and, as a result of its success, the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) was set up. Since then, MSSL has been involved in many international space science missions including XMM-Newton, Cluster and Cassini-Huygens. The launch of Ariel 3 on 5 May 1967 was an historic day for the British space industry. As well as carrying UK experiments, Ariel 3 was the first spacecraft to be built entirely in Britain. Manufactured by the British Aircraft Corporation (now part of Astrium Limited), the spacecraft was about half a metre high and weighed around 90 kg and laid the foundations for the present-day UK satellite industry. Recognition in Europe of the inherent values of space activity, combined with a realization that the high costs of space activity require the smaller nations to pool their resources, has led to the establishment of two European regional organizations - the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) and the European Launcher Devel- opment Organization (ELDO). ESRO, de- voted to scientific endeavor only, is expend- ing over $300 million over an eight-year period. ELDO, committed to booster development, budgets over $200 million in five years. 14 ESRO has undertaken a balanced space program featuring sounding rocket experi- mentation, small first-generation geophysi- cal satellites, stabilized astrophysical satel- lites, a large astronomical satellite, a track- ing and data acquisition network, and techni- cal and data analysis centers. The United States welcomes this development, and NASA has agreed to launch an ESRO iono- spheric satellite and an ESRO solar and cosmic radiation satellite. Both are ex- pected to be ready for flight in 1967. Since ESRO is making its tracking and data acqui- sition stations compatible with NASA's, the possibility of cooperation in this area is open. Meanwhile ELDO has tested the first state of Europa I, a three-stage launch vehicle designed to develop 365,000 pounds of thrust and to put a ton-and-a-half space- craft into low earth orbit. The test flights will eventually incorporate French and West German second and third tages and culminate in a 1966 launching of an Italian test satellite. ELDO is already studying a second-generation booster with high-energy upper stages. It is in this area of advanced technology that projects of mutual interest are conceivable as the basis for cooperative efforts between the U.S. and ELDO. By 1968 studies, to which my hon. Friend the Minister of State referred in answer to the hon. Member's Question on 18th March, were of various combinations of Blue Streak with stages of the small launcher now being developed as part of the Black Arrow programme. (The latter is based on the Black Knight vehicle to which the hon. Member's earlier Question referred.) As said in the earlier answer, a simple combination of these launchers could not put a satellite into geostationary orbit. This could only be achieved by considerable additional and costly development.—[ the report of the Advisory Committee on Programmes set up by the 1967 Rome Space Conference to make proposals for the development of a European space programme. This Report—known as the Causse Report—is due to be discussed at the European Space Conference to be held in Bonn, the summer of 1968, and all the Governments concerned were asked to make their views known on its recommendations in time for preliminary discussion by the Committee of Alternates at a meeting which had been fixed for to-day. The UK was of the view by April 1968 that a further development programme of the ELDO launcher, beyond that to which we are committed, and which ends in 1971, cannot now be justified. The development and production costs of ELDO launchers would have been prohibitive, and the potential applications for them, both limited and speculative. We therefore decided not to undertake any additional financial commitments to ELDO. There have been troubles in ELDO. The costs have been liable to go up; there has been the failure of the French stage, which has been quite a factor. There has been the need to develop the perigee apogee stage, which adds further costs. the essential reason why ELDO has yielded, apparently, disappointing results is because it is run by a group of national experts, each of whom regards problems primarily from the national point of view, and, therefore, there is no consequential provision for an authority who would take the necessary decisions in the interests of the group as a whole? Would the Government not agree that this is the essential reason why it has not functioned very satisfactorily By early 1968 of Black Arrow, where the first orbital flight will take place next year, with a second one in 1970. •1st development launch (non-orbital), March 1969. •2nd development launch (orbital), late 1969. •3rd development launch (orbital), early 1970. •1st utilisation satellite, early 1971. The programme beyond the launching of the 1st utilisation satellite has not yet been determined. The third Black Arrow development firing from Woomera on 2nd September 1970 was intended to put a 180 lb. payload into polar orbit. This was not achieved because the second stage engine lost thrust 13 seconds earlier than planned. The attitude control system also failed to operate correctly. 29 July 1971 The first phase in the review of the National Space Technology Programme has now been completed. Plans to launch the X3 satellite on a Black Arrow vehicle later this year have been confirmed, but it has been decided that the Black Arrow launcher programme will be terminated once that launch has taken place. We have come to this decision on Black Arrow mainly because the maintenance of a national programme for launchers of a comparatively limited capability both unduly limits the scope of the National Space Technology Programme and 163W absorbs a disproportionate share of the resources available for that programme. We hope to complete our review in the early months of 1972. Meanwhile work is continuing in industry on research into basic satellite technology and on the development of the X4 satellite. X4 is planned to be launched in 1974 on a Scout vehicle to be purchased from N.A.S.A. The Black Arrow was designed and built by Great Britain as a satellite launch vehicle. Only four were launched - all from Woomera. The first (28 June 1969) was deliberately destroyed following loss of control 50 seconds into the flight. The second (4 March 1970) was a successful sub-orbital flight. The third (2 September 1970) was the first orbital attempt which ended in failure when the second stage engines shutdown 13 seconds early. The Black Arrow program was cancelled by the British Government in July 1971, although one further launch was permitted. At 0409 GMT on October 28, 1971, the fourth and final Black Arrow left its launch pad at Woomera and placed the Prospero satellite (International designation: 1971-093-A) into an orbit inclined at 82 degrees to the equator about 10 minutes after liftoff. The initial orbit had a perigee (low point) of 537 kilometres and an apogee (high point) of 1,593 kilometres. (As of 12 April, 2007, Prospero's orbit was 531 by 1,330 kilometres and the satellite had completed about 77,400 orbits.) The Prospero satellite was built by the British Aircraft Corporation. It was spin-stabilized and was designed to prove basic systems for future satellites. It carried a single scientific experiment designed to detect micrometeoroids. ELDO - the European Launcher Development Organisation - was established to develop a satellite launch vehicle for Europe. Woomera, Australia, was chosen as the launch site for the test vehicles. The ELDO project originated back around 1960 with the cancellation of the British "Blue Streak" ICBM program. Blue Streak became the first stage of the "Europa" vehicle with France providing the second stage and Germany the third. Italy worked on the satellite project, while the Netherlands and Belgium concentrated on tracking and telemetry systems. Australia was the only non-European member - a status granted in return for providing the launch facilities. The ELDO project was divided into three phases. Phase 1 involved launching northwest toward Talgarno in Western Australia. Three successful launches (F-1, F-2 &F-3) of the first stage (Blue Streak) were conducted in 1964/65. Phase 2 saw northerly launches into the Simpson Desert in the Northern Territory. Launches (F-4 to F6/2) were conducted in 1966/67. Phase 3 involved northerly launches with the target of reaching orbit and eventually orbiting an operational satellite. Launches (F-7 to F-9) were conducted between 1967 and 1970. The Final F-10 flight never took place. In summary, 10 launches occurred in the program - the first involved the first stage only on 5 June 1964. Unfortunately, no successful satellite launch was achieved and the final all-up launch of ELDO's Europa 1 launch vehicle took place on 12 June 1970 with the satellite failing to reach orbit. European satellite launch activities then shifted to the French site at Kourou, in French Guiana, which is now home to Ariane launches. The European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) chose Woomera, in South Australia, as the location for their launch site for test vehicles. The purpose of the organisation was to develop a satellite launch vehicle for Europe. In 1974 the ELDO was merged with the European Space Research Organisation to form the European Space Agency. http://historicspacecraft.com/Archives.html Finally, in 1982 British Aerospace engineers originated a concept for a single-stage, horizontal take-off and landing (HOTOL) space transportation system. For the next several years the design was refined and eventually presented to ESA for consideration; meanwhile a 2-year proof-of-concept study was initiated in 1985 among the UK government, British Aerospace, and Rolls Royce.

Firm support for HOTOL never materialized from the UK government or ESA, but the project managed to survive at a very low level of effort. The baseline HOTOL design in the late 1980's called for a 250 metric ton unmanned vehicle which could deliver a payload of up to seven metric tons to LEO on a typical mission lasting 50 hours. The vehicle would be similar in size to the Concorde supersonic aircraft with an overall length of 62 m and wing-span of 28 m. Propulsion would be provided by four RB545 dual-mode engines which would operate in an air-breathing mode up to an altitude of 26 km where a conversion would be made to a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen rocket propulsion mode. A 14-year development program was recommended before HOTOL would become operational. Despite some modest Government encouragement to industry, the current prospects for a full-sized HOTOL project in this decade are poor (References 485-487).

In 1991 British Aerospace joined with the USSR's Antonov Design Bureau to consider the possibility of developing a smaller version of HOTOL, dubbed Interim HOTOL, which could be air-launched by a modified An-225 aircraft. Interim HOTOL would be released at an altitude of about nine kilometers and would then use four Russian RD-0120, liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engines to carry a payload of 7-8 metric tons into LEO. Wind tunnel testing of the Interim HOTOL and engine Antonov carrier has been accomplished. The dimensions of Interim HOTOL are approximately 36 m length and 22 m wing-span. Despite considerable interest in the program, no full development plan has been approved and funded. The concept is still being evaluated and may be continued under ESA's FESTIP study activities (References 488-495).

In 1993 the British firm Reaction Engines, Ltd., revealed that it was developing an engine called SABRE which could propel a new spaceplane concept called Skylon. One of the founders of Reaction Engines was a principal in the design of HOTOL's unique power plant. Skylon would be 82 m in length with a wingspan of 27 m and could carry a payload of 10 metric tons to an orbit of 300 km at a 5 degree inclination (References 496-498).