Blue Streak missile
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Black Prince
In 1959, a year before the cancellation of the Blue Streak as a missile, the government requested that the RAE and Saunders Roe design a carrier rocket based on Blue Streak and Black Knight. This design used Blue Streak as a first stage and a 137 centimetre (54 inch) second stage based on the Black Knight.[8] Several different third stages would be available, depending on the required payload and orbit. Examples of orbits suggested by Saunders Roe and the RAE were a 556 km (300 nmi) orbit for 'experiments in stellar UV spectroscopy', a 556-1,296 km (300-700 nmi) orbit for 'enabling investigations of the Earth's radiation belts,' and a 556-185,200 km (300-100,000 nmi) orbit for a 'Space probe.'[9]
There were some problems with the design, however. The relative power of the rocket reduced with altitude.[10] The solution requested by the government and provided by Saunders Roe was to use a high-energy cryogenic upper stage which would increase the payload to 408 kg (900 lb) to a 9,260 km (5,000 nmi) orbit, and 272 kg (600 lb) to a 16,670 km (9,000 nmi) orbit. The cost of developing the upper stage stage was estimated to be £5-7 million.[11]
It was planned that Black Prince would be a Commonwealth project, however since the government of John Diefenbaker in Canada was already spending more money than publicly acknowledged on Alouette and Australia was not interested in the project, these two countries were unwilling to contribute. South Africa was no longer a member of the Commonwealth New Zealand was only likely to make "modest" contributions.[12]
France, however showed an interest, although they were suspected of trying to gain technical information for their own missile programmes.[10] Despite this, Saunders Roe continued to design new configurations even after the formal cancellation of the Black Prince programme.[11]
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SLAVE
Saunders Roe later proposed a design where Blue Streak would form the first stage, the second stage would be a slightly stretched version of the second stage used on the Black Arrow rocket, and the third stage would be a Waxwing solid motor, which was also used on Black Arrow. It would have been capable of putting around 1360 kg (3000 lb) into low Earth orbit and a few hundred kilograms into a geostationary orbit. It is thought that Saunders Roe were considering communications satellites as a possible payload for this rocket, since they designed a pair of solid motors under the payload that would be able to accurately place a satellite in the correct geostationary orbit. They believed such a rocket would be a success since access to both Russian and American rockets was restricted.[13][14] The proposal was known as Satellite LAunch VEhicle, or SLAVE.[15]
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Blue Streak today
Following the cancellation of the Blue Streak project some of the remaining rockets were preserved at:
- The National Space Centre in Leicester, England.
- The Deutsches Museum at Oberschleißheim near Munich
- The National Museum of Flight in East Fortune, Scotland.
- The Euro Space Center in Redu, Belgium.
- Royal Air Force Spadeadam [1]
- John Davis's garage in Fleet[citation needed]
- John Edwards shed in Chaddesden
An RZ2 engine is on display at Armagh Planetarium, Northern Ireland.
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Blue Streak in popular culture
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
Footage from the Blue Streak launch was briefly incorporated into The Prisoner's final episode, "Fall Out". A part of the Blue Streak rocket launched on June 5, 1964 from Woomera, Australia, found 50 km SE of Woomera in 1980 is on display at Giles Weather Station. Another piece was located in 2006 but its exact location has been kept secret by the finders. The titanium structure of a German third stage was, for some time, sited on the edge of a gravel pit in Gloucestershire.
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See also
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External links
- http://www.spaceuk.org/bstreak/bstreak.htm
- http://www.skomer.u-net.com/projects/bluestreak.htm
- http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/6133/bluestreak.html
- Blue Streak including newsreel footage
- RAF Spadeadam
- National Museum of Scotland description of the Museum of Flight exhibit
- Free papermodel of a blue streak missile
- British Public information film on the Blue Streak at the National Archives (15 minutes Quicktime and Windows Media formats)
- BBC Radio 4 – "The Archive Hour – Britain's Space Race". 11 August 2007.
[
References
- ^ a b Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 117. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 153. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 151. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ http://members.aol.com/nicholashl/ukspace/hill.pdf
- ^ Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 118. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ a b Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 119. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ centaur
- ^ Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 124. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 125. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ a b Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 127. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ a b Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 130. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 126. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 123. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ Hill, C N: "A Vertical Empire.", page 220. Imperial College Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86094-267-9
- ^ SpaceUK - The Alternative Black Arrow
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