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Chapter 17. JOINUNG THE CLUB

(pp. 428, 432-434)

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The Woomera range [in Australia] played an important role in Britain's national space effort and contributed to the first attempt by a united Europe to develop a European space launcher. The origins of the British space launcher could be traced back to development of independent nuclear deterrent in mid-1950s, the intermediaterange ballistic missile Blue Streak. The Blue Streak was designed as a silo-launched liquid-propellant IRBM for delivering nuclear warheads a 2740-mile (4400-km) distance, reaching from England to the heartland of the USSR. First development contracts were let in 1955 to De Havilland Propellers (airframe), Rolls-Royce (engines), Sperry Gyroscope (inertial navigation), and Marconi (radars and communications). The Blue Streak design was inspired by the American Atlas ICBM and used kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellants.

Development of the missile was an expensive undertaking with a large Australian contribution. The Woomera range significantly expanded its territory and facilities in preparation for the forthcoming tests of the Blue Streak IRBM. In particular, a new launchpad was erected on an escarpment 150 ft (46 m) high above a dry salt lake. This arrangement directed much of hot exhaust gases in the flame duct and thus allowed substantial reduction of the amount of water required for cooling the pad as compared to launches from flat surfaces.

When the Blue Streak program was started in the 1950s, British experience in ballistic missiles was rather limited. Therefore, a new program, called Black Knight, was soon initiated to gain expertise through development of an inexpensive test vehicle. The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) in Farnborough designed the Black Knight, which would become a highly successful rocket program.

The Black Knight's turbopump-fed gimballed engine Gamma was built by Armstrong-Siddeley Motors and achieved a thrust of 16,000 lbf (71 kN). (Armstrong- Siddeley was later absorbed by Rolls-Royce.) Propulsion technology for Gamma originated from a series of rocket engines that included the Alpha and Beta engines of the early high-altitude interceptor programs, produced under direction of the RAE. These engines used kerosene as fuel and high test peroxide (HTP) as oxidizer. HTP was an 86% concentration of hydrogen peroxide, with the remaining 14% water and required special care and safety precautions in storage and handling. The use of HTP in British missiles was rooted in the technology implemented in the German Walter rocket engine (named after the Walter Company of Hellmuth Walter) built for the Me 163b interceptor during World War II.

On 7 September 1958, the new Black Knight missile was successfully launched on the first attempt. During the next 10 years, the missiles would reach altitudes of several hundred kilometers many times carrying out various research projects including studies of warhead reentry. The final launch of the Black Knight rocket was performed on 25 November 1965.

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ARIEL SATELLITE SERIES

NASA launched first British satellites, the Ariel series, in 1960s, helping British scientists and engineers to gradually build up their expertise in satellite and space instrumentation technology. The first satellite, S-51 or Ariel-1, was placed in orbit by the American Thor–Delta launcher on 26 April 1962. Actually, the spacecraft bus was also built by NASA with the British scientists providing scientific instruments. The arrangements were similar for the second satellite, S-52 or Ariel-2, that was launched on 27 March 1964.
The S-53 or Ariel-3 was different. The spacecraft itself was designed and built in Great Britain. Ariel-3 was successfully launched by the American Scout rocket on 5 May 1967. In total, six Ariel satellites were placed in orbit, with the last Ariel-6 launched on 2 June 1979.

With the problems in the European ELDO [European Launcher Development Organization] initiative mounting, Great Britain made a decision in 1964 to launch a satellite by its own rocket using technological expertise acquired in missile programs. The three-stage launch vehicle was named Black Arrow, and it largely relied on modified and upgraded systems of the successful Black Knight missile. The first and second stages used swivelling engines with hydrogen peroxide and kerosene as propellants and provided a thrust of 51,000 lbf (227 kN) and 15,700 lbf (70 kN), respectively, for slightly more than two minutes each. Specific impulse varied form 217 s at sea level for the first stage to 265 s for the second stage. A solid-propellant motor of the third stage provided a thrust of 35,000 lbf (156 kN) with specific impulse of 276 s for 55 s. The third stage with the attached satellite was spun up to 190 rpm before firing the motor.

British Hovercraft Corporation integrated the entire launch vehicle at its facilities at Cowes, Isle of Wight. Rolls-Royce provided engines for the first and second stages and RAE's Rocket Propulsion Department at Westcott, assisted by Bristol Aerojet, Ltd., built the third-stage solid-propellant motor Waxwing. The Black Arrow stood 29 ft (13 m) tall and was 6.5 ft (2 m) in diameter of the first stage, looking not exactly as a slim arrow as its name would suggest.

The first Black Arrow development vehicle, the R0, had a dummy third stage, and it was tested on 28 June 1969 at Woomera. The flight safety officer destructed the rocket after it began disintegrating at a 5-mile (8-km) altitude as a result of loss of swiveling control of engines. The next test vehicle, the R1, was a repeat of the test program of the failed R0. The R1 successfully flew to the Indian Ocean on 4 March 1970.

Fig. 17.9. British Black Arrow rocket being prepared for launch of the Prospero satellite at Woomera on 28 October 1971. Photo courtesy of Defense Science and Technology Organization, Department of Defense, Australia.

The next launch, the R2, was designed to test the entire launch vehicle and, if successful, to place in orbit a simple satellite, a hollow 3-ft (76-cm)-diam goldplated aluminum sphere with a transmitter sending a continuous signal. The launch direction was northward in order to achieve a near-polar orbit. On 2 September 1970, the rocket first stage and the new third-stage Waxwing motor worked perfectly. The second stage, however, cut off 30 s earlier than scheduled, and, as a result, the satellite fell into the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Finally, on 28 October 1971, the Black Arrow R3 vehicle successfully placed a British satellite, named Prospero, in orbit. British Aircraft Corporation in Bristol built the spacecraft, with electronics developed by Marconi. The satellite was placed in a near-polar orbit with inclination 82.1 deg, apogee 983 miles (1582 km), and perigee 340 miles (547 km). Today, the satellite is still in orbit with apogee 832 miles (1338 km) and perigee 329 miles (530 km).

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PROSERO – WHAT'S IN THE NAME?

The Shakespearian names given to Britain's first satellites was a pleasantly imaginative touch, but it turned into something of a comedy of errors. Ariel, the first to be launched by US in May 1962, was named in allusion to the sprite who boasted of putting 'a girdle round the earth in forty minutes.' When it came to naming later satellites in the series, Don Hardy of Space Department [of the Royal Aircraft Establishment] RAE pointed out that the sprite was not Ariel in The Tempest, but Puck in A Midsummer's Night's Dream. This name was vetoed for fear of embarrassing the Minister with a slip of the tongue in the House [of Commons], so Hardy suggested they stick to The Tempest and its magical atmosphere, offering the name Prospero. When in 1974 the X4 satellite was to be launched on a Scout rocket it was named Miranda after Prospero's daughter.

   Peter Morton (1997, 526)

Prospero's shape resembled a pumpkin and was slightly more than 1 m (3.3 ft) in diameter with 70 cm (28 in.) height and 72 kg (159 lb) mass. The spin-stabilized satellite carried only one scientific instrument for detection of micrometeoroids, which was provided by Birmingham University. Technological experiments included validation of surface coatings for passive thermal control and evaluation of performance of three types of solar cells, silica and glass slips protecting cells, and new integrated electronic components.

This first successful space launch of the Black Arrow on 28 October 1971 also became its last. Three months before the launch, the British Minister of Aerospace announced a cancellation of the Black Arrow program. (The second satellite built for the program was later launched by a Scout rocket in the United States.) No more space launches would be conducted by British national launch vehicles.

Great Britain thus launched its own satellite on its own rocket and joined the elite group of space-faring nations. The country did not become, however, the fourth member of the club — after the USSR, United States, and France — but the sixth. Japan and People's Republic of China had launched their satellites in the meantime.

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