Britain in Space
Europa I and Europa II
Europa I
In March 1962, the
European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) was formed with
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Holland. Australia was an associate member, as it provided
the launch facilities at Woomera.
A Europa I launch from Woomera
ELDO's first project was the Europa I rocket. This was basically a redesign of Britain's proposed Black Prince Launcher , but with the upper stages built by European countries. The first stage was the Blue Streak , the second stage the French Coralie, and the third stage Germany's Astris.
Europa I was scheduled to be operational by 1966. However, although the testing of Blue Streak, which began in 1964, was successful, the other stages did not perform as well. In 1965, the first Coralie stage failed during its test. This setback meant that the project overran its schedule. Also, the missions the launcher would have to perform had changed since the launcher was first designed in about 1960. For these reasons at a meeting in 1966, it was decided to re-think the launcher, leading to Europa II (See below).
Work on Europa I continued though. The first launch with Two Stages took place in August 1967, but the Coralie Stage failed. Later, during the first tests of a complete Europa I, the First and Second Stages worked perfectly, but the German Third Stage failed, loosing the satellites.
The final Europa I flight took place on 11 June 1970. On this occasion, all three Stages worked perfectly, but the payload shroud did not jettison, causing the flight to fail. The Europa I programme ended without placing a satellite in orbit.
| 5.6.64 | Test flight using only 1st stage (Blue Streak) | ||
| 20.10.64 | Test flight using only 1st stage (Blue Streak) | ||
| 22.3.65 | Test flight using only 1st stage (Blue Streak) | ||
| 24.5.66 | Test flight. 1st stage (Blue Streak) and upper stage mockups | ||
| 15.11.66 | Test flight. 1st stage (Blue Streak) and upper stage mockups | ||
| 4.8.67 | Test flight. 1st stage (Blue Streak), 2nd stage (Coralie) & 3rd stage mockup | ||
| 5.12.67 | Test flight. 1st stage (Blue Streak), 2nd stage (Coralie) & 3rd stage mockup | ||
| 30.11.68 | First attempted launch with all 3 stages. | ||
| 31.7.69 | Launch attempt with all 3 stages. | ||
| 12.6.70 | Launch attempt with all 3 stages. Failed due to non-separation of payload shroud. | ||
Europa II
Europa II came out of the 1966 decision to redefine the Europa project due to overruns
and changes in mission requirements. It was decided that the launcher would now have
four stages and be launched from an equatorial site; Kourou in French Guiana. The
rocket would then be able to place a satellite in Geostationary Transfer Orbit, meaning
it could launch heavier payloads, such as communications satellites.
The extra stage, developed by France, was known as PAS or "Perigee-Apogee System". In 1969, Britain and Italy left the project (another sign of the British Government's increasing disillusionment with space). Because of this, Europa II was 90% funded by France and Germany.
Europa II was first fired (appropriately enough!) on 5 November 1971, but it failed due to a guidance malfunction, and this project, too, was cancelled. A Europa III was proposed, but never developed. Its planned first stage, however, was used in the European Space Agency's Ariane series of launchers.
| First and only Europa II launch with all 4 stages. Failed due to guidance malfunction. | |||
To Comment on this Site:
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Yahoo closed GeoCities on the 26th October, and this
site needed to be protected from being lost (although the some of the site has
been archived by:
Internet Archive GeoCities Project Team
it is incomplete).
As all efforts to contact Stephen O'Brien have so far been without result, I have taken the unusual step
of mirroring the content, whilst making technical updates. Obviously without Stephen O'Brien's involvement
this is not an acceptable long term solution. To assist in this, or to make comments on the site please
Douglas Ian Holland
![[Valid RSS]](../images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}
