Fifty-five years ago, at 4:09 a.m. local time on October 28, 1971, a British Black Arrow rocket lifted off from Woomera in South Australia. It carried the Prospero satellite into low Earth orbit. This made the United Kingdom the sixth nation to place a satellite in orbit with a domestically developed launch vehicle.
That solitary launch from Launch Area 5B in the Australian desert marked a brief zenith for British rocketry using a slender three-stage vehicle standing nearly 13 meters tall. Developed as the national satellite launcher and based on the smaller Black Knight research rocket, the structure measured 12.87 meters in height. The 66-kilogram experimental technology satellite was originally named Puck after the sprite in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and built by the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. It entered an elliptical orbit ranging between 522 kilometers and 1,300 kilometers above Earth.
Program Cancellation Preceded Success
The historic achievement arrived under unusual circumstances. The British government had already terminated the Black Arrow program before the rocket ever left the pad. On July 29, 1971, Frederick Corfield, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, formally announced to the House of Commons that Black Arrow would end.
Britain decided to concentrate on building satellites and placing them on foreign rockets. This transition saw NASA withdraw a prior offer to launch British payloads free of charge once Black Arrow was cancelled. Despite the cancellation, permission was granted to launch the R3 vehicle already stationed in Australia, with its second stage having arrived at the range three days prior to the announcement.
The wider program had experienced two failures and two successes across four total flights. The first orbital attempt carrying the Orba satellite in September 1970 failed when the second stage shut down early. Following the final flight, the launch facilities at Woomera were demolished within a year. The subsequent British satellite, X-4, flew on an American Scout from California in March 1974 after being meant for the un-flown Black Arrow R4. Today, a preserved Black Arrow launch vehicle and a flight spare of Prospero are held by the Science Museum Group, where the objects demonstrate the practical scale and construction of early British spacecraft engineering.
28 October 1971. 04.09.00 UTC/GMT. Launch of the Prospero (X-3) from Launch Area 5B (LA-5B), Woomera, South Australia on a British Black Arrow rocket. First satellite launched by Great Britain, to undertake a series of experiments studying the effects of the space environment.… pic.twitter.com/1KsXwrJ3aE
Prospero Tests Satellite Systems Despite Antenna Damage
The ascent was not entirely clean. The Waxwing solid motor on the rocket’s third stage reached orbit as well and continued to thrust after separation. It ran into the payload, breaking one of Prospero’s four radio antennas. Nevertheless, the spacecraft functioned as designed to study how the space environment affects communications satellites. It tested experimental solar cell arrangements—including a cover made with cerium oxide instead of fused silica—alongside trial telemetry and power systems, plus a micrometeoroid detector to determine if small particles in space posed threats.
In recognition of the program’s termination, the spacecraft was renamed after the sorcerer in Shakespeare’s The Tempest who gives up his powers. Regular communications from the satellite concluded in 1973 when its tape recorders stopped working, though ground stations at Lasham in Hampshire contacted it annually on the launch anniversary for more than 25 years before formal deactivation in 1996.
Proposals To Retrieve Defunct Spacecraft
Its enduring legacy prompted Scotland-based space startup Skyrora to announce plans in 2021 to rendezvous with the defunct spacecraft using a company space tug, latch onto it, and pull it from space to deorbit in Earth’s atmosphere.
By recovering Prospero, we are not only coming together as a space nation and taking responsibility for what we have launched into orbit, but also confirming our commitment to the sustainable use of outer space.
Volodymyr Levykin, Skyrora founder and CEO
The company intends to launch its Skyrora XL rocket from Saxavord Spaceport in Scotland, returning national launch ambitions to focus after decades of reliance on foreign launch providers.
More on Prospero
#OTD 28 October 1971, UK launches #Prospero, Black Knight 1 satellite on Black Arrow rocket from #Woomera, Australia https://t.co/2lKLNJMr9E pic.twitter.com/Phvn6bn4ST