Britain's Lost Horizon's - Prospero X-3

If you know exactly where to look, you could theoretically see it. Weighing in a 66 kilos and orbiting the Earth every 104 minutes since it's launch on this day in 1971 is Prospero X-3, the British space program greatest achievement. The only satellite entirely designed and built in Britain and launched by a British designed and built rocket, the Black Arrow, it should continue to orbit the Earth for at least the next 50 years, a shining example of the success and failure of the British space program. To this day, it reminds us all that Britain has the dubious honour of being the only country in the world to successfully developed and then abandoned a satellite launching capability. All other countries that have developed such a capability have either retained it through their own space program, or in conjunction with others.

Back in the 1950's and 60's the future looked rosy. Britain was going places, and space was one such place. Rocketry in the UK was developing along military lines at first with the desire for an independent ballistic missile capability. Firstly, with Blue Streak and then Black Knight, powerful liquid fuelled rockets were developed that were marvels of technology at the time, way ahead of the competition. Then some people saw the opportunity to get into the space business and use that technology to launch satellites, and so Britain's space program began. But in 1971, just as the government and the men from the ministry stepped in to cancel development of these rockets on the grounds of cost, Britain's space program was ready to launch. Fortunately for all those involved, Prospero and it's rocket had arrived at the launch site in Australia just weeks ahead of the cancellation, and it was decided that the launch might as well go ahead, as it wouldn’t cost any more money. Early in the morning of the 28th October that year, the Black Arrow rocket thundered into orbit, pushing Prospero up to a maximum height of over 800 miles. Up until only a few years ago the little satellite was still transmitting it signal back home, in the vain hope that someone was actually still listening.

The world today of course is a very different place. Even the US has given up the ability to put it's own astronauts in space for a while with the cancellation of the space shuttle program. Commercial launching seems to be the future. But if you ever find yourself staring up at the sky on a dark night, if you knew where to look, you might just be able to glance a view of Prospero as it's orbits above us in it's fairly stable long term orbit. If you do, can I suggest you raise a toast to those early British rocket men, with their tweed suits, slide rules, pipes and can-do attitudes. They truly were ahead of their time