British space programme
The objectives of the current civil programme are to "win sustainable economic growth, secure new scientific knowledge and provide benefits to all citizens.
In 2010, many of the various separate sources of space-related funding were combined and allocated to the centre's replacement, the UK Space Agency.
Scientific interest in space travel existed in the United Kingdom prior to World War II, particularly amongst members of the British Interplanetary Society (founded in 1933) whose members included Sir Arthur C. Clarke, author and conceiver of the geostationary telecommunications satellite, who joined the BIS before World War II.
The British performed the earliest post-war tests of captured V-2 rockets in Operation Backfire, less than six months after the end of the war in Europe.
In 1946 a proposal was made by Ralph A. Smith to fund a British crewed suborbital launch in a modified V-2 called Megaroc; this was, however, rejected by the government.
[5] From 1957, British space astronomy used Skylark suborbital sounding rockets, launched from Woomera, Australia,[6] which at first reached heights of 200 km (124 mi).
Development of air-to-surface missiles such as Blue Steel contributed to progress towards launches of larger orbit-capable rockets.
GCHQ therefore decided to produce a British-designed-and-built signals intelligence satellite, to be named Zircon, a code-name derived from zirconium silicate, a diamond substitute.
Launch on the Shuttle would have entitled a British National to fly as a payload specialist, and a group of military pilots were presented to the press as candidates for 'Britain's first man in space'.
[10] However, on 25 September 2020, The Daily Telegraph reported that the United Kingdom Global Navigation Satellite System project had been scrapped.
OneWeb satellites are manufactured by a joint venture including Airbus Defence and Space, who operate Skynet.
A major satellite launch vehicle was proposed in 1957 based on Blue Streak and Black Knight technology.
With Blue Streak, Britain had the technology to make it possible, but the idea was rejected by the British government on the grounds that such a system could not be envisaged in the next 20 years (1961–1981).
The probe was found in 2015[22] by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and it has been concluded while it did land successfully, one of the solar arrays failed to deploy, blocking the communication antenna.
[23] The British government partnered with the ESA in 2010 to promote a single-stage to orbit spaceplane concept called Skylon.
[24] This design was developed by Reaction Engines Limited,[25][26] a company founded by Alan Bond after HOTOL was cancelled.
[30] However, in July 2018 UKSA announced that the UK government would back the development of a spaceport at A' Mhòine, in Sutherland, Scotland.
A private consortium was formed to raise money to pay the USSR for a seat on a Soyuz mission to the Mir space station.
A call for applicants was publicised in the UK resulting in the selection of four astronauts: Helen Sharman, Major Timothy Mace, Clive Smith and Surgeon Lieutenant Commander Gordon Brooks.
The cost of the flight was to be funded by various innovative schemes, including sponsoring by private British companies and a lottery system.
Corporate sponsors included British Aerospace, Memorex, and Interflora, and television rights were sold to ITV.
Its operations will use SpaceShipTwo space planes designed by Scaled Composites, which has previously developed the Ansari X-Prize winning SpaceShipOne.
During the Space Race, Jodrell Bank and other stations were used to track several satellites and probes including Sputnik and Pioneer 5.
[49][50][55][56][note 1] Anthony Llewellyn (born in Cardiff, Wales) was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA during August 1967 but resigned during September 1968, having never flown in space.
Army Air Corps Major Timothy Mace (born in Catterick, Yorkshire) served as back-up to Helen Sharman for the Soyuz TM-12 / Project Juno mission in 1991.
Clive Smith and Royal Navy Surgeon Lieutenant Commander Gordon Brooks also served for a year as back-up astronauts for the Juno flight, learning Russian and preparing the scientific programme.
On 1 July 2021 Virgin Galactic announced that Richard Branson (its founder) and Colin Bennet (the Lead Operations Engineer) would fly as part of the crew to space on VSS Unity.
[57] The 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group includes three British citizens as candidates – Rosemary Coogan (career), Meganne Christian (reserve), and John McFall (parastronaut).
