Development of Black Arrow was largely performed by the prime contractor, the British aerospace company Saunders-Roe, and later undertaken by Westland Aircraft as the result of a merger.

Once manufactured, each Black Arrow vehicle was transported by ship to Australia prior to being launched from the RAAF Woomera Range Complex.

[2] British officials decided to discontinue the programme in favour of using American Scout rockets instead, the Ministry of Defence having calculated this option to be cheaper than continuing with Black Arrow.

[7] The final Black Arrow to be completed, which never flew, has been preserved intact at the Science Museum, London, along with the flight spare for the Prospero satellite.

Black Arrow originated from a Royal Aircraft Establishment proposal for a rocket capable of placing a 317-pound (144 kg) payload into low Earth orbit,[altitude and inclination needed] in order to test systems designed for larger spacecraft.

[14] The British powerplant specialist Bristol Siddeley produced the first and second stage engines at a factory in Ansty, Warwickshire.

[4] Black Arrow was designed to reuse as much technology from the earlier programmes as possible in order to reduce costs, and simplify the development process.

[12][21] The name Black Arrow came from the Ministry of Supply policy of assigning designations consisting of a colour and a noun, unofficially known as Rainbow Codes, to research programmes conducted by the Armed Forces.

[24] Black Arrow was a relatively compact launch vehicle, being particularly slender as well as possibly being the shortest rocket ever to place a satellite into orbit.

[25] The first and second stages of the Black Arrow were fuelled by RP-1 paraffin (kerosene), burnt using high test peroxide as an oxidiser.

[2] The delay between burnout and separation was intended to reduce the risk of recontact between the upper stage and payload due to residual thrust.

[35] In its standard configuration, Black Arrow was not capable of launching some contemporary satellites up to a sufficient altitude to achieve geostationary orbit.

[4] Another suggestion was to mount the entire rocket atop a Blue Streak missile,[37][38] while a third proposal involved replacing the Gamma engines with the more powerful Larch.

[41][42] This initial failure was a considerable blow to the programme, particularly as there were insufficient financial reserves to accommodate a second unsuccessful launch.

[44] An extensive programme review was conducted in the aftermath of the third launch, which determined that Black Arrow's design had no fundamental flaws and that only minor modifications were required.

[25][48] The Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Frederick Corfield, announced the cancellation of the Black Arrow project in the House of Commons on 29 July 1971.

[2] The programme was cancelled on economic grounds, as the Ministry of Defence decided that it would be cheaper to use the American Scout rocket, which had a similar payload capacity, for future launches.

[2] The final Black Arrow to be completed was R4, which did not fly, and is preserved in the Science Museum, London, along with the flight spare for the Prospero satellite.

[56] Due to weather and vandalism related damage, the first stage was returned to the United Kingdom in an initiative led by Skyrora to preserve the artefact.

[57] It was displayed in Penicuik, Scotland, in early 2019; as of Spring 2024, the rocket is on loan to the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust Museum.

[58][59] The launch facilities at Woomera were demolished within a year of the final flight,[4] and half of the engineers who had worked on the programme were laid off.