The Black Arrow & Britain's Rocket Program
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- čas přidán 20. 06. 2024
- It's been 50 years since the first successful suborbital flight of the British designed and built Black Arrow rocket. Ultimately it would prove its ability to launch satellites into low Earth Orbit before being cancelled, but there's a lot to talk about. The Propellent choice of High Test Peroxide and Kerosene is not one we see very often but it has some very interesting advantages over more conventional choices.
Lots of info on British rockets is available on Nicholas Hill's site:
www.spaceuk.org/index.html
Gamma 8 image in thumbnail by Andy Dingley - Věda a technologie
Britain: We need an engine for something
Britain: *Rolls Royce*
To be fair, that's the response for a lot of the rest of the world as well! Especially in the 20th century.
OnceIWasYou *cries in Rocketdyne and OKB/NPO*
@@gonufc To be fair, they gave Leyland a chance with the Challenger 1 tank engines. The soldiers regret that to this day.
Rolls-Royce is a very well established name in aerospace, where jet engines made under that brand are one of its major markets. You can even see the label sometimes if you board an airplane from outside instead of from a boarding ramp.
If you are familiar with both rocketry and the company, it shouldn't be surprising. It does sound funny though since it is also a very quintessential British company. I also wouldn't fault those unaware of the industrial products of that company.
@@GlanderBrondurg and four marine gas turbines in the Zumwalt class destroyers, because they are the "most powerful in the world" according to the US navy.
This seems to be a reoccurring theme in british history:
They achieve a very advantageous position - and then suddenly decide to stop. Kinda tragic.
xassix Am British, can confirm. The word you are looking for is ‘Insipid’.
At least they didn't destroy the plans and keep it secret for 30 years, like with the computing industry they invented and then abandoned.
kinda reminds me of how they started to support a novel and beneficial economic alliance and just decide to pull out
Double crossed by the USA who promised us cheap payload costs on their rockets, then decided not to honour the agreement. The blue streak / black arrow tech lived on in the Ariane project thanks to ELDO.
having watched the german football team, i can relate
My grandfather was one of the lead engineers on this for 10+ years and was part of the team that designed the radio communications systems. He went to Woomera numerous times (and recalled the first computer he ever saw there which took up a whole building!) and partook in a lot of the tests at Woomera, Spadeadam and the Isle of Wight for all iterations of the project. He was gutted when the programme was cancelled, stating cheap satellite launch vehicles would be the future of all communications. After the project was cancelled, most of the engineers were headhunted and ended up in the USA. However a lot of the tech from this (or the ELDO part at least) ended up in Ariane. He later went on to work for DRA, SRDE, RRE and TRE and design the Clansman military radio systems that were in use until fairly recently. I still have a lot of his old documentation, including a nice booklet on the Woomera facility and a couple of the Clansman radios he designed.
Bruh...ur a lucky man
Maybe share some documents with Scott and we can get a vid out of it?
@@fensoxx please contact Scott.
Seriously... your Granddad designed Clansman!? If you're telling the truth, that's pretty cool. If he had anything to do with Cougar, though...
He probably worked with my friend Martin who went on to be one of the directors of SSTL. His trips to Woomera sounded interesting!
The Prospero satellite was named intentionally because the Black Arrow was being cancelled - it was deemed fitting to have the satellite be named after the sorcerer who decided to give up their magic.
If there’s one thing we are good at it’s fitting and elegant naming of machinery.
That is beautiful. I feel sad for those engineers.
@@nicksalvatore5717 Their work was preserved at least, there's a complete Black Arrow rocket and it's payload in the London Science Museum.
Put Wallace and Grommet on it! You'll have a lunar capable manned (and dogged) space program in no time.
Phohonpohpjpppppppppjpppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp
As a brit, and a rocket enthusiast, I find it physically and emotionally painful to watch this video.
Yes, it sucks
Is there something wrong with the video, or is it the fate of the program just sad?
@@Xatzimi the latter
@@Xatzimi the rocket was perfectly visible and correct me if I'm wrong but it was extremely fuel efficient and could hold up to today's standards.
The British government scrapped it and less than 5 years later small sat launch became extremely profitable
The satellite name, Prospero, was a dig at the cancellation of Black Arrow. It comes from a character in Shakepsear's play "The Tempest" who is a magician who gives up his magic powers.
Alan Bond who founded the air-breathing rocket engine developer Reaction Engines worked on Blue Streak and Black Arrow, so if a Sabre powered orbit capable launch vehicle ever flies, there will be a direct link between Black arrow and that launch vehicle - which is sort of poetic justice. As has been said elsewhere in this thread, the UK has had this habit of abandoning amazing technology just as it's about to be successful... Miles M52, TSR2 and Black Arrow to name a few.
Supposedly, that engine he lead the development of was patented by the government, so when work was stopped on that engine decades ago, he spent lots of time trying to work around infringing on his own patents when he began working on it with Reaction Engines instead. I've only heard this through lecturers at university, but if true that is tragic!
Myles Jones Alan Bond said so at several meetings The Sabre engine is a workaround and improved concept of the copyrighted RB545 engine. Worry not the UK government has killed plenty of technology projects at the behest of Washington (the special relationship) That includes an independent space launch capability.
The secret to supersonic flight is the all-moving tailplane, and we gave that innovative technology to the Americans - which made the Bell X-1 possible - and got nothing in return. A rocket powered model of the M52 flew supersonically after the main programme was cancelled, which proved we could have beaten the Americans to Mach 1. Legendary test pilot Eric 'Winkle' Brown was going to be the test pilot, and he was very disappointed he never got to fly it.
@@mylesjones851 He and Rolls Royce patented aspects of the engines, the Government then declared them an official secret. Time was spend coming up with alternatives, which fortunately were superior, so they kept with the new methods after the Government released them
The British Government has a long history of cancelling things just as they come to fruition, leaving other countries to then cash in on the market the UK abandoned :(
Unlike the US, which cancels things like Apollo and X-33, that no one can make work. Yet.
IMO, it's a symptom of democracy; dictatorships are better at commitment to an Idea. It's true that different governments/political parties have different priorities, but there seems to be a streak of personal animus in some of these decisions: "Well, it was X's idea, so we need to kill it in favor of mine." Cynicism, yay!
@@icollectstories5702 It is a lack of accountability and the desire to expand their department's domain within a limited timeframe.
Even worse, they typically then take the research gained and then simply hand it over to another country.
@@highlands Oh yes - IIRC a lot of Blue Streak technology ended up in India, and look where they are now !
TBH, WTH would the UK do with an A bomb-tipped ICBM? Some of these projects like the V-bombers and Blue Streak seemed like good ideas at the time, but eventually you have to ask, "What happens if we succeed?" Say the UK had a MIRV ICBM - are they safer? Do they get cheaper oil, etc.?
In hindsight, I think it's better to cozy up to the Americans and work with the EU as a counter-balance. Can you imagine what the UK would be if, for example, they concentrated on computing hardware? It's true that in the US, early semiconductor technology was driven by the military, but could academia have led this in the UK?
You talk about launch failures enough that it would be really cool to have a video on the various launch abort methods. Not the escape methods for crew vehicles, but the self destruct in the event of loss of control. Something going into how it's decided to abort, what signals are passed back and forth, and the actual mechanism for turning a hundred plus tons of fuel, oxidizer, and payload into confetti
I love how surreal it looks rising on that nearly-invisible (at least with the quality of footage available) column of exhaust. Also, I’m impressed by the courage of the British engineers and ground crew, working with huge tanks of hydrogen peroxide. Which may not require any cryogenics, but is hardly a “storable” oxidizer.
The Lipstick Rocket!
The rocket designed ahead of its time.
The was no small satellites yet, but genius small cheap and simple rocket launcher without complicated cryogenic fuel!
It's actually my favorite rocket.
It could have paid for itself had they waited till the 80s when launching satellites became a business.
My grandfather designed the radiocommunications on it, and was incredibly upset when the project was cancelled. He cited a cheap launch vehicle for satellites was the way of the future, but sadly the government did not think so, having cancelled the project on the promise of cheap launch capacity on American rockets which was swiftly withdrawn once the British project had been scrapped. At least the tech went on in the form of Ariane.
I love the rocket, it’s a cute but powerful little thing! It would be interesting to see if the propulsion gets revisited now the world needs cheap and clean burning launch capabilities...
Hydrogen Peroxide is extremely hazardous in the form of corrosion. The Soviets lost a submarine because they used Hydrogen Peroxide in their torpedoes and on one the Hydrogen Peroxide ate through and caused an explosion. Every other nation using torpedoes had already tried or considered that propulsion system and rejected it as too hazardous. It must be stored in special containers then transferred to the rocket's tanks as close to launch as possible. Of course SpaceX does the same with its cryogenic system.
My point was supposed to be that Hydrogen Peroxide has handling difficulties on the same order as
, cryogenic, LOX.
@@markhorton3994 the handling difficulties are completely different.
With anything cryogenic, you have to keep it cold or you risk rupturing the tank. When things get really cold, they become brittle. LOX is a fun substance that turns many poorly burning things into very flammable ones and flammable things into explosives. Also igniting anything involving cryogenics requires a fair bit of persuasion (a failed ignition in a rocket engine usually does not end well).
HTP on the other hand requires really clean tanks and pipes (or things tend to randomly explode). It also instantly sets flammable things on fire, people included. The corrosion is very manageable and easy to deal with by using the right materials. The vicious reactivity with organics and inorganic catalysts is the problem.
If you want extremely hazardous oxidisers, look at white fuming nitric acid or nitrogen tetroxide. Those are not fun to handle.
@@AKAtheA I was answering the comment that Hydrogen Peroxide avoids the hazards of handling LOX. My point was that either is extremely hazardous. It's just a matter of choice which set of hazards and special handling needs to deal with.
"So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up."
-M. Python, The Holy Grail
now stop that...STOP THAT...we shall have none of that nonsence here :)P
-M.Python, The Holy Grail
Will you please listen to me? I’m not the messiah!
@@progmetalfan4270 That's what the Messiah would say !
*_"She has such HUGE...tracts of land!"_*
Make sure the Prince doesn't leave this room until I come and get him!
Hopefully space will be returning to the UK, there's a planned spaceport in Cornwall at Newquay airport that's going to host Virgin Orbit's 747
That didn't really go very well!
The biggest surprise for me was learning that Scott likes rockets.
I hope they pull off the Scottish launch site, its probably the only chance I'll get to take my kids to see a real rocket.
Lang may yer lum reek, Orbex!
#MrGonzonator That would be great to see. A couple of years back there was talk about Cornwall getting a space launch site. That would have been great for me because i am just up the road in Devon. But i really could not see why they were considering Cornwall, anything launched from there would have had to head out west over the Atlantic, and for getting into orbit you really want to go east to get the speed boost.
Will the Scottish rocket be fueled by whisky?
Ian Walton i laugh but this is actually possible, as in russia one of their rockets that i forget the name of is literally fuelled by vodka, but a highly potent version which is 99.9% alcohol.
Did you notice Scott's accent getting more Scottish when he started talking about Orbex? ;)
@@danchang9976 they had to change fuels as it inexplicably caused some of the engineers to go blind.
Such a shame this project never reach its full potential
Iirc The British are the only country to achieve orbital launch ability, and just shrug and give it up
It's like a metaphor for Britain's entire industrial policy over the last few decades.
i think israeli arrow rockets take flag than.
@@makomk Sad, but true. Us Brits aren't the greatest at decision making, I think the last 70 odd years shows that :D
Thank you for covering my favorite rocket! I've always wanted to work on a rocket engine based on it using HTP in a closed cycle.
Scott, when you next come back to the UK, you MUST visit the Solway Aviation Museum. There's a section of Blue Streak rocket on display (sadly outside) and various pieces of equipment such as turbopumps on display. I would be delighted to show you!
There's a whole Black Arrow in the Science Museum, including the 'spare' satellite. /both impressve and very sad when you stand under it.
Last time I was at the Science Museum was to watch Apollo 11 at the IMAX. Before I went into the IMAX I went to see the Apollo 10 capsule and the LM mockup. After I came out of the IMAX I stood under the Black Arrow and just wept.
@@paulhaynes8045 and @Owen Smith: the Solway Museum has charm though. Most of the parts came from Spadeadam about 20 miles away.
The engine was also tested at the Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott Bucks. My father worked there from 46 to 74 and I was an apprentice their from 1967 to 1971. I worked their for another 2 years before I left. About 4 years later working for Sperry Gyroscope on the update to Polaris. The old bluestreak test site can still be seen from the Aylesbury to Bicester road, it’s a large black building with what looks like a shed on top. You also spoke of HTP. this was used in rocket pods mounted under the wings on a Lancaster bomber in 1946. I have 3 pictures showing my father fuelling these rocket on the Westcott runway. I believe he designed or helped design the fuelling trolly. His job at the time was in charge of the crew that used to fuel the liquid rockets, he was always coming home with small holes in his trousers where small droplets of HTP had splashed on them. I believe the only site still in use is J site, this was the site that I worked on for 3 or 6 months during my apprenticeship. All good memories from over 50 years ago
I get to correct Scott Manley!
Only Black Arrow and Black Knight were tested at the Island of Wight (High Down Rocket Test Site).
RZ.2 engines (that powered Blue Streak) were tested at Spadeadam, Northern England, where also the Blue Streak was static fired
*Isle of Wight, I think I've visited the test station sites years ago.
I saw this in the London science museum. Pretty cool
New video when
Me too, it looks amazing!
There's a Blue Streak and a Thor-Able at the Leicester Space Museum, as well as a replica Prospero amongst other things.
@@dylantowers9367 yea, I live about 20mins from there, I've been a couple times
@@shed1536 no
"Green Cheese - nuclear anti-ship missile"
Seems about right !
You really have to love the rainbow codes.
Fairly sure that was during the 1980’s Arsenal Ship fantasy. With a Hood mk2. Covered in ASM and torpedos.
Green Cheese actually had conventional warhead derived from the Red Angel unguided rocket.
There were two variants, one with folding fins, which was supposed to be carried by the Blackburn Buccaneer and Fairey Gannet, and a variant with fixed fins that was to be carried by the Vickers Valiant.
What a great video. I am proud to have been involved in the Black Arrow Programme as a junior systems engineer. I had a fantastic time in learning real time programming and hardware supporting the satellite up to and including launch. Gutted when it was cancelled after the successful deployment of the satellite. .
Scott: Explains how the first stage used metric units and the second and third stages used imperial
Me: Hello, Dr. Snidely, fancy meeting you here!
Fantastic oration today and the storytelling was also great. Thanks for the info!
Glad to hear Woomera mentioned even if only briefly. For a while in the 60s it was one of the busiest rocket launch sites in the world (which resulted in several science fiction novels of the time having a future Woomera Spaceport). Incidentally Woomera is a local word for spear-throwing-stick i.e. device used to boost the spear to go further, which is why it was chosen. Australia too had its moments of walking away from space technology. When the European Space Agency was being formed Australia was the only non-European country invited to be a part with the contribution of its Woomera launch range but it turned the offer down. The information about the Peroxide fuel was fascinating.
Love getting into the geeky technical side with your videos. Thanks!
Scotland: we're launching rockets now!!
Scott Manley: I'm moving to Scotland!!!!
I was hoping you would mention the fun fact regarding the name Prospero. Prospero is a character in The Tempest by Shakespeare who vows to abandon his magic powers once he achieves his goals. Which is quite fitting! Great Video though!
Metric and Imperial in the same rocket? It's miracle it didn't crash on Mars! :-)
Thanks Scott. Hugely informative, as always.
Smiles
Fun fact: you can easily walk around and look at the concrete mounts and flame trenches built to test the engines - shown at 08:34 - on the Isle of the Wight. They’re on the side of a cliff overlooking the sea, just along from the Needles rocks.
Good to see you summarise this, I have seen what’s left of Blue streak at Spadeadam, so much potential, they had the engineers and the infrastructure, as well as success. The project should have continued.
Dear Mr.Manley sir, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your old Eve videos, I recently started playing Eve after watching 30,000 virtual space ship and am really enjoying it. I am not a fighter jockey and find the slow plodding grind of a miner very relaxing. In my first 20 days, I have started my spreadsheets and made almost 20 mils Isk. Not a huge amount, but for an old git like me (60+) its good plus I can listen to some of your older works.
Nice to read all the memories. I left Manchester University in 1959 with a degree in Physics, and went to work with De Havilland in Stevenage on Blue Streak. I worked in what was called the "Sponsors Group", and "my" rocket was D6. I got to go up to Spadeadam Waste a few times. If I remember correctly (a long time ago now) I was scheduled to go to Australia with F3 - but we all know what happened then.
I was given a job at the back end of Hatfield Airfield working on Red Top, a heat seeking air-air missile which was quite interesting. The future of the British aerospace industry was looking dodgier by the day, and I bemoaning this in the pub one night, when some other engineer asked me if I wanted to something "completely different". I said OK, and within 6months was on a seismic crew in Burma.
Love the channel, Scott!
Thanks Scott my farther worked on the guidance systems for BlueSteel and BlueStreak but left the project and immigrated to Australia to work on the Apollo program.
I was despairing of ever be able to see a doc on Britain's rocketry !
Me expecting @DJSnM's next video to be about the new rover.
Him:
HERE YOU GO. BRITAIN ROCKET
There's a 'lipstick' rocket on static display at Woomera, South Australia.
Also one at Sandown Aerodrome on the Isle of Wight, though this one's a replica.
R.V.Jones, what a marvellous man to listen to. The Secret War (BBC) together with Connections is still one of my favourite documentaries.
It has just hit me: I'd kill for Scott Manley and Amy Shira Teitel (vintage space) collaboration on old space programs, people behind them and hardware
I think he'll get to all of them eventually
My grandfather designed a part for Blue Streak/Black Arrow. I think he said it was a clockwork timer to run the stage separator. I still have the prototype. A neat little thing with a double-vane escapement like a nautical clock.
Wow, can you post a picture somewhere?
@@paulsengupta971 Sure, I just stuck a couple of pics on my Twitter, "SciStarborne".
I'll have a look, cheers!
Scott me and my daughter enjoy your video this now our new Sunday tradition you inspire many including me, my daughter. thanks
While you're at it, better teach your daughter that it's good manners to list yourself last when listing a number of people, and that it's "my x and I", not "me and my x", because otherwise the sentence would be "Me enjoy your video".
For Scott Manley.
I note your excellent video of the black arrow and blue streak British space programs, in which testing was performed at Woomera in Australia. In the early 1960's as a young chemical engineer with the Australian DOD
explosives branch, I was working on making extruded cordite for solid rocket motors for this program. Also though, and what was not mentioned in your video, we sent large tanker truck quantities of (soda carb stabilised) nitro- glycerin liquid to Woomera. I understood this to be a monofuel liquid rocket propellant for the blue streak rocket.
I note that only high test peroxide and kerosene was mentioned, so I wonder what happened to all the nitroglycerine?
Thanks for the video Scott.
Currently I'm working in mining maintenance and on a site south of Coober Pedy in the Woomera prohibited zone.
I often wonder what other cool things launched into the sky around here.
(Obviously also had nuclear tests as well)
Thanks for sharing 👍😀
Interesting rocket
The old Black Knight rocket test stands and control room bunkers are still there on the Isle of Wight, up on the downs near the Needles. Been up there a few times, interesting place when you think back to the history.
Enjoy your channel. Had a couple of questions, wasn't sure where to put them, so here they are with a bit of pre-amble.
Recently I watched the extended interview of Destin Sandlin with Tory Bruno at ULA. After watching this and seeing this recent promo video from Blue Origin a picture is emerging of how these companies are designing and building the pressure vessels that make up the bulk of structure of their rockets, thick aluminium sheets, CNC milled to reduce weight while at the same time retain strength, rolled into barrels that are friction stir welded together.
The SmarterEveryDay video also includes content on how liquids and gases behave during launch and in zero G and Tory even mentioned “sloshogists” who help to model this and feed into the design of baffles that are added inside tanks to ensure engines are fed an uninterrupted supply of propellants.
In contrast SpaceX is building its tanks from thin flat sheets of stainless steel which are directly rolled into barrels and arc welded together. Also to my knowledge internal baffles have not been mentioned certainly nothing in the order of requiring "sloshologists".
Does the extra strength of steel means that milling is not required and can the same be said for arc welding over friction stir welding? Also do the SpaceX tanks contain complex internal baffling that we don’t know about? If not, why?
Assuming steel does simplify the build process significantly while providing better structural strength at cryogenic and high re-entry temperatures why wouldn’t other rocket companies looking to reuse their hardware, be pivoting in this direction?
I saw the "lipstick rocket" in the science museum in London. I was geeking out about it and my not-rocket-loving friend almost left because I behaved like a little child on Christmas 😅
That exsact same thing happend to me too, I was on a class trip and they almost left me there because I was just so facinated.
If I go to the Science Museum (or anywhere like it), I either make sure I'm going with someone equally as geeky as me, or explain as we go through the door that I'm going to be geeking out a lot and if they can't handle that, they should go do something else ;)
PS, the aeroplane section on the top floor has some amazing stuff too.
Tom Smith
Yeah, they’ve got an Me-163 Komet! Fastest aircraft of WW2 and rocket powered to boot.
@@Nyatascha4510 Same. One of the best museums ever
@@phuzz00 True. I was amazed by that too
finally, good info in this is so hard to find
We still launch experimental rockets in Scotland (in the outer Hebrides where I was brought up) a company called Quinetiq develop and test rockets I've seen many go up a long way! There was talk of a spaceport out there but it was decided it would be built somewhere on the mainland.
Blue Streak static firings were at Spadeadam in Cumbira, not on the Isle of Wright (which was the SARO Black Knight / Black Arrow) though early static test firings of the Blue Streak were done at Manor Road on the edge of the airfield at Hatfield in Hertfordshire. I saw the last two being built in the Factory at Stevenage when I was a kid as my Grandfather worked on the project. I later worked at Spadeadam on Russian SAM systems where we used the old firing blockhouses as equipment stores.
Thanks Scott...!
12 months ago I was standing next a black arrow on display at the Woomera rocket park. Im looking forward to visiting that place again real soon.
Oh wow, this is a great video! Thank you for making it.
What a fascinating thing. It's like a secret history. The British had their own rocket program that made its own unique design choices (that have never been replicated since), and it sounds like things were going pretty well. Then they just... decided to stop.
5:11 So, the British made a steam powered rocket?
And why not?
They quite well understood the principles from a century and half of an IndusTrial revolution and they had had ships that used steam as propulsion so why not space age vehicles?
If they could have figured out how to cast it out of solid brass and make it fly they would have
When you combine O2 with H2 you get hot H2O - steam.
Most internal combustion engines are a kind of steam engine
- the steam is produced by combustion internally instead of heating a boiler.
More power Scotty !
A really interesting vid!
I new there were British rockets but have never seen any footage, and I didn't even realise it would be possible to launch a rocket that far from the equator!
Thanks Scott! :-)
Chris Dicker
Launching from the equator is only helpful if you want to be in an equatorial orbit. For polar orbits the further north/south you launch the better.
They were launched from Australia though! A friend of mine used to travel out to Woomera on the large transport aircraft which transported the various bits out there.
I think one of those rocks is on display at woomera on the out sides of town. It’s by no a large rocket. It’s very popular with visitors. If you search for woomera rocket display you can see it.
I think my favourite rainbow code is the Blackburn ARNA project, which stood for A Royal Navy Aircraft. It took approximately two seconds for that to become “black banana”
Ansty, Coventry, is where those Gammas were designed, tested and built. I've just done a history of the site and displayed it in my pub =D
I’ve seen the one in the science museum in London, it’s quite impressive. I also went to the High down test stand on the isle of white. There’s not much of it left sadly, guess I got to go to woomera now?
The Rocket program failing is a great metaphor for the UKs industrial and political capacity the last 100 years
Just Vienna Remember British motorcycles?
But it didn't fail. Their last launch was successful. The program got shut down from above.
@@TeddSpeck To be entirely fair, the thing that screwed Britain over was the aftermath of WWII. Strapped for cash, with basically the entire supply lines of their industries being unplugged (with the dissolution of the British Empire) and with an enormous labour shortage, the UK basically didn't have any real fight left in it.
On top of that, they were friends with the Americans, who were predatory from the start. The US intended to dominate the western sphere and they weren't going to let a nation like Britain reclaim its position in world affairs.
You broke 1000000 subscribers, well done!
Last year i visited the test site on the Isle of Wight and there's a small museum which tells the story of those British rockets.
I just heard about the "mini moon" temporarily orbiting earth, and was thinking about the possibility of a future mission to capture one of these small objects in a stable orbit.
Would it ever be reasonable to attempt to bring a small object in a temporary orbit into a stable one? To study, or as a proof of concept for mining or collision avoidance?
Yes, in fact that was one of the plans for SLS
Thanks for covering this :D - the wreckage is just up the road from me (well just moved there recently)
You moved into the wreckage? Be safe it's 50 years old probably not up to code anymore.
Did the presence of the wreckage factor into your decision to move there?
Ah yes, placement of words is key. Well pointed out! I've lived here since birth, they moved the wreckage from Australia to Scotland a wee while ago.
I hope that clears things up
It (the first stage of the rocket which launched Prospero) was on display at the Fairford RIAT air-show last year. It's remarkably intact, with just a bit of squishing around the rocket motors which is the bit it fell on I guess!
@@paulsengupta971 yep, I think it's in Penicuik with Skyrora at the moment. I've been meaning to go and see it if it's possible. I'm pretty sure it is, the was plenty of press about it. But as you say, it must have had a favorable landing, even though the people living in the area probably didn't think so!
A lot of the infrastructure that was built for these tests still exists out in the bush of the Woomera rocket range, still the largest test range in the free world. Indeed, some of the buildings seen in this video are still in use today at the Edinburgh site in South Australia. The entire defence industry that exists in Australia today owes itself to British investment and experimentation here in the 50’s and 60’s.
They also tested the Blue Streak engines at Spadeadam, I watched and heard some of them from several miles away when I was a boy in the early 60s.
Some Blue Streak engines and memorabilia are displayed at the Solway Aviation Museum at Carlisle Airport nine miles east of Carlisle. Spadeadam is only a few miles away where they tested the rockets. Outside they have an Avro Vulcan and several other great aircraft including a Lightening, Canberra, Hawker Hunter, Venom, Phantom, the museum is well worth a visit. The whole thing is run by enthusiastic volunteers from an aviation background.
It should be said that Blue Streak never failed, ever, not once.
GETTING EASIER NOW! A LOT OF THE SCIENCES HAVE BEEN FIGURED OUT ALREADY! WE MUST NEVER STOP LEARNING AND GROWING!
The "Wight Aviation Museum" on the Isle of Wight have been making a full scale replica of the Black Arrow rocket, and are trying to get their facility sorted to display it.
A project well worth donating to.
Check out their website.
underwaterdick I’ll have to have a look at that I live on the Isle of Wight and have been getting into space and spacecraft quite recently never knew that the rocket engines were tested on the iow i
@@imtherealvict1m not sure if it is open yet, think they were just moving to Sandown airport.
Let us know though please, might make a visit next time I'm over.
@@imtherealvict1m oh, and it's well worth checking out the rocket site when you get time!
Have a good look into it, in sure that you will find plenty of info on the island that will tell you about the place!
Yeah isn’t open yet but I’m gonna try and keep up with the progress will probs become member
The replica rocket is, however, outside, and you can go to Sandown Airport and see it. It might be covered by a tarpaulin in this wet weather, but it is there.
Nice video
Did a Presentation in English Class on this, amazing Stuff!!!
Jeez at the beginning when you said fifty years ago I anticipated a date in the 1950s! What bloody year am I in? Must be getting old.
When 1970 is 50 years ago.
Damn.
The launch was on the day I was born. Yes, it was my 50th birthday two days ago.
According to UK Space Scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock (1), the UK had money either to continue Black Arrow... or to build Concorde.
(1) BBC Radio 4 "The Museum of Curiosity" Season 6, Episode 6 - well worth a listen all round, all three guests bring great stuff!
Whether that is true or not, I can say having flown Heathrow to JFK on Concorde that it was worth every penny we paid to build it. But Concorde is yet another thing that was cancelled before it's time. It was so well designed and built and lasting so well that it could have been still in service now. The airframes were getting better with age not worse, the heat from supersonic flights was found to be annealing out any cracks that started to form.
There's a replica on the Isle of Wight at Sandown Airport. It's on its side right now, but we're planning to stand it up this year.
Well another problem was that they flew on the left side of the sky.
xD
You win the internet today.
Shout out to the Isle Of Wight!!!!! The test site is open to the public!
I would love to see a Scots launch vehicle, resplendent in its Black Watch tartan roll pattern, soaring above the Highlands.
7:11 1965 All-England limbo champion.
:-)
Interesting. I must say, I prefer your space-vids above that of the "everyday astronaut's" and others that dwell in the same domain.
Huh. I wonder if the low exhaust temperatures, simplicity of not needing cryogenics, and much easier closed cycle pump system would make Peroxide + Kerosene a good choice for a cheap first stage recoverable booster. Specific impulse is less important for the 1st stage compared to cost and re-usability.
OTOH, I suspect that the amount of power generated by the peroxide decomposition might not be able to keep up with the high chamber pressures of a modern heavy lifter.
I wonder if the specific impulse of kerosene/HTP could be increased by emulsifying some aluminum or magnesium powder in with the kerosene. The idea being that those metals can use some of the water produced by the peroxide as an oxidizer for a higher energy density. And since the result of M+H2O --> MO +H2, the molecular lightness of hydrogen in the exhaust might help with specific impulse as well.
Interesting to note that Black Arrow's HTP+RP1 propellant combination will fly again soon on Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser.
4:16 Am I seeing things correctly in that the nozzles are all canted off in weird directions? Is this a design feature or are these on some sort of gimbal I'm not seeing?
9:02 he mentions that they can gimbal
Both Plesetsk and Kapustin Yar are in Europe...
My grandfather worked on the Blue Streak! Never realised that it was a space rocket!
The Brits had a rocket program? Seriously?
"I say, Dickie, electrical systems up to snuff?"
"Rah-THER!"
"Everything tip-top in hydraulics, Nigel?"
"Well if it weren't tip-top, it'd be right there on your warning board, innit?"
"Fuel pressure, Ian?"
"Almost to full pressure, gov. About eight under optimum."
"Bruce, tell Kevin to increase pressure."
"Right-O!"
"Mrs. Nesbit?"
"Yes, dear?"
"Put the kettle on!"
"Yes, dear."
"Byron, best lower that cabin temperature a tidge."
"I'll give it a right rum go, sir!"
"Excellent! Now, how are we doing in cooling systems, Scotty?"
"We tried dousing her with water, but that did nay work, so we've kitted her up with a bonnie jacket soaked in good Scotch whisky."
"So you're trying to employ cooling by evaporation?"
"Aye!"
"But... aren't you afraid that it might, you know, sort of... explode?"
"But sare, it's whisky! And those lads in the rocket are Scotsmen all! If the Good Lord sees fit to destroy three Scotsmen good and true with whisky from their own homeland, then I suggest we're all fooked for starters, sare. Do ye nay see me point, sare?"
"Bloody brilliant thinking, Scotty!"
"Thenk ye uncoly, sare! Can I offer you a drink of good Scotch whisky?"
"Perhaps after the launch, but don't let me stop you."
"Oh, aye, sare, but I don't think you could."
"Right! All systems are go, so let's not bollocks this right up. We've got three jammy bastards in that bucket of bolts going into space, if we've got anything to say about it, so now's the time to show you're ace at what you do."
"Mrs. Nesbit?"
"Yes, dear?"
"Start the countdown."
"Yes, dear. Five... four... three... two... one... Ignition. Here's your tea, dear."
"Oh, thank you very much, Mrs. Nesbit..."
Brilliant, and oh so true. Well done!!
Cringe
You used to write for Frye and Laurie didn't you?
Cor blimey mate, that was cracking.
I would really love to see the uk more involved in space research
i remember hearing about this but didn't realise it ran into the 70's
I'd love to be an engineer on uk rockets.
I'm just an engineer on claped out old (not vintage) light aircraft.
I guess it could be worse!
Where do you work and what do you do? I have a clapped out old Bulldog...
@@paulsengupta971 EGTR normal maintenance repair work
Woomera is a remote town founded in South Australia, to launch rockets, and the name woomera is the Dharug word, from Eora (that you've probably heard called Sydney)for a lever used to throw spears further and more powerfully.
Is the footage at 10:07 realtime? The oscillation looks so violent. It's hard to think it could hold together, or that the engines could exert enough torque to snap back and forth that quickly.
Great video, but no postscript.
There was a Black Arrow on a ship going out to Australia whhen the program was cut ( I blame Heath and his love of things French, Ariane?) and they were told to dump it at sea, but they brought it back and it was in the Science museum Kensington from then until now.
I used to visit and look at the 8 engines and marvel at the quality of the construction, I also cursed the politicians who p....d away the British aerospace industry.
orbex should be the flower of Scotland ! I never knew this.. thanks Scott
When will we see the likes again?
@@thePronto well not in the little life time I have left..
So much of this footage reminded me of thunderbirds.
F.A.B.