Black Arrow

Black Arrow launches Prospero from Woomera on 28 October 1971

In 1964 the Royal Aircraft Establishment successfully campaigned to be allowed to develop a small space launcher for the UK, which was named Black Arrow. The thinking behind the decision to proceed was that, with the cancellation of Blue Streak, the new launcher would keep Britain in space at a low level, where the costs might be later justified.

The Black Arrow rocket was essentially a modification of the Black Knight sounding rocket of the 1950s. For example, Black Arrow burned the same High Test Peroxide fuel used in Black Knight. Black Arrow was a three stage rocket only 13 metres high, weighed 18 tonnes at takeoff, and could place around 100 Kg of payload into Low Earth Orbit. This small size indicates that the Governments of the 1960s had very little interest in a space programme, being more concerned with restructuring the Aerospace industry. It is interesting to note, though, that Black Arrow's First Stage was designed with a diameter to match that of the Blue Streak , Blue Streak missile. This would have allowed Black Arrow to use Blue Streak as a first stage, creating a much more useful launcher. The opportunity to put this into practice, however, never arrived.

Due to the low budget - only £9 million - for Black Arrow, there could be no trial and error in the development. This is demonstrable by the fact that the rocket engines were fired underground, in a bunker at Anstey, and then adjusted, rather than firing a series of test rockets for the same purpose.

The first two flights of Black Arrow were sub-orbital, and used only two stages. One launch, however, failed due to technical problems, as did the first attempt at an orbital launch in 1970. By the spring of 1971 the complete Black Arrow had not been shown to work, and a Parliamentary Select Committee was meeting on the future of British space efforts. Before the Committee could report, however, the Minister in charge of the Black Arrow project had cancelled it.

However, there was enough hardware for a final launch attempt, so permission was given to launch this flight. Ironically, the last Black Arrow worked perfectly, and on 28th October 1971, placed Prospero, Britain's first self-launched satellite, into orbit. The decision, by the Project Team, to name the satellite after Shakespeare's magician who lays down his books and gives up dominion over Earth and Sky, was quite deliberate.

Prospero was designed only as a technology test vehicle, and so carried no experiments. It was placed into a 531/1402 Km orbit, and will continue to circle the Earth every 100 minutes for the next 40 years. With the correct equipment, the satellite's radio transmitter can still be heard broadcasting on 137.56 MHz.

Shortly after the successful launch of Black Arrow, the Select Committee reported on its findings. These were essentially that Black Arrow, and British interests in space, had no future. Black Arrow's cheapness meant great limitations: it could not launch communications satellites into Geostationary orbit, merely small science packages into Low Earth Orbit, and an estimated �90 million would have been required to make Black Arrow useful. In the 1960s, Britain had a variety of more pressing needs which such sums could be spent on, such as the new Universities. Space exploration was a luxury which could not be afforded.

It can be argued, though, that the policy makers did, in fact, make a mistake. 1971 also marked Britain's withdrawal from ELDO, the European Launcher organisation. It would not be long before the telecommunications market would become a major industry, and it would be the French, who stayed in space largely for national pride, who inherited a large portion of the commercial launch market for the largely French-based Ariane launcher. Britain, due to the "Special Relationship" with the USA, had a technological advantage in the 1960s, and could have been a leader in the European space effort. Today, however, the last Black Arrow (R4), and the spare Prospero satellite, are in the Science Museum, London.

Black Arrow launches
Date	Launch Site	Payload	Notes
29.6.69	Woomera		Failed. Control lost after 50 seconds. R&D fight with only 2 stages.
4.3.70	Woomera		Successful flight. R&D fight with only 2 stages.
2.9.70	Woomera	Orba (X 2)	First attempt at orbital flight. Failed due to insufficient thrust from second stage.
28.10.71	Woomera	Prospero (X 3)	Successful orbital filght. Prospero first British Self-launched satellite in orbit.

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