Great Britain’s Vertical Empire

“Ground Control To Major Tom.”

A Space Oddity, David Bowie

British Rocketry

After the end of World War II, British space technology held its own against the bigger, better funded US and Soviet Union programs. The UK had its sights set on landing astronauts on the Moon. Unfortunately a catastrophic lack of leadership, funding, self-belief and basic politics which saw Britain simply giving away vital technical knowledge to direct competitors, doomed this hope.

Aspirations

It was always assumed by the British people and popular writers of the time that there would be a British space program, with British astronauts voyaging to the moon and beyond to Mars.  

Prior to World War II, Arthur C. Clarke wrote an essay entitled “Venture to the Moon” and in 1956 another six part serial in featured the British Evening Standard, “How We Went to Mars”.  In the 1960’s, David Bowie wrote and recorded his first real hit record – “A Space Oddity” which tells the story of Major Tom, a fictional version of an early British astronaut. So, what happened?

Today the remains of Britain’s world class rocket program still haunt the cliffs of the Isle of Wight – where the ruins of a pioneering space research station endure as a permanent reminder of what could have been.

Still standing are massive sandstone launch blocks, where scores of powerful rocket engines were tested and perfected. The legacy of this is a monument to political short-sightedness, scientific penny-pinching and the decline of British standing in the world.

Building an ICBM

In the immediate post-war period Britain was a serious player in three-horse race with Russia and the USA in the battle to perfect rocket technology.

The driver of course was not pure science. The world had just witnessed the terrible power of nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the imperative military goal was to team a thermonuclear device with a dependable, targetable, rocket.

But Britain still had the home-grown brains and technological clout to punch above its weight in the race to space.

To keep up with the USA and the Soviet Union, Britain began development of an ICBM, the Blue Streak with the Black Knight being the forerunner. The 60 foot long rockets were assembled and tested above Scratchells Bay on the Isle of Wight.  

In 1958, after just three years work, the first prototype ICBM was launched from a new site in Woomera, Australia, not reaching orbit but crossing the 100 kilometer line into space.  Note that this event was only a matter of months after the US orbited its first satellite and about six months after the historic launch of Sputnik. In spite of this achievement in 1962 prime minster Harold McMillan announced Britain was going to buy Polaris missiles from the USA – the death knell for Blue Streak.

Great Britain Achieves Orbit

British scientists did not give up, opting instead to operate a smaller, purely civilian program which continued until until 1971 culminating in the successful launch of its own satellite called Prospero. This satellite is expected to continue orbiting the earth for another two centuries and was launched by the Black Arrow. This vehicle was the civilian version of the military Blue Streak ICBM.

Despite this remarkable success, Britain’s government lacked the political confidence to push forward with a domestic space program. British rocket scientists, not willing to give it all up, attempted to resurrect something from their work – openly sharing rocket plans, engineering and research with colleagues in the European Economic Community.

After Blue Streak and other programs were axed the Convention of the European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO) was formed. Ultimately, ELDO was merged with the European Space Research Organization to form the European Space Agency (ESA) a true competitor to both NASA and the Soviet Program for space launch. 

21st Century Programs

Fast forward to the 21st Century.  The United Kingdom in the last few years has become a builder of small satellites and now looks forward to launching them from British soil as well. 

In an interview with CNBC, Claire Barcham, Director of the United Kingdom’s Space Agency (UKSA) stated “The one bit that we’re missing is the launch,” adding that UKSA wants “to use launch capabilities to make the U.K. the European hub for small satellites.”  

The UKSA’s hope is that launch facilities will attract a host of launch providers to Britain, including traditional rockets launching vertically, new air-launch systems or point-to-point transportation systems for high-speed travel around the world.

There are signs that is actually happening.  Virgin Orbit has entered into an agreement with Spaceport Cornwall to operate from there as a base for its horizontally operated launcher, the Cosmic Girl.  The runway is 2,700 meters in length, one of the longest in the UK.

Edinburgh-based Skyrora achieved a significant milestone for its program, successfully launching its Skylark Nano rocket from an island off the coast of Scotland. The company has flown its Skylark Nano twice previously, including a first launch back in 2018. This is the first time it has taken off from Shetland, a Scottish site that is among three proposed commercial spaceports to be located in Scotland.

Another entrant is Orbex a British aerospace company that is developing a small commercial orbital rocket called Prime. Orbex, headquartered in the United Kingdom plans its future launch complex to be in northern Scotland. First flight for the Prime is 2021.

The Future

These companies are all in direct competition with Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit, Northrup Grumman’s Orbital Sciences and the SpaceX ride sharing program for the small satellite market.  While none of the new British entrants have completed an orbital mission, the rest of these companies with the exception of Virgin Orbital, have successfully launched payloads repeatedly into space.

All this activity is good news for the United Kingdom’s space business.  The fact that there are multiple companies all working to build out reliable launch systems, while establishing additional infrastructure like space communications is a positive step in resurrecting the UK space flight industry. With the government now supportive of a revived space flight business, things are, pardon the pun, looking up for British space exploration.