AFTER 50 YEARS, BRITAIN IS BOLDLY GOING BACK INTO SPACE
Fifty years ago, the British space programme had a problem.
Through the 1950s and ’60s, while the Soviets and United States traded places at the forefront of the space race, the UK was trying not to lag too far behind. We developed the Black Arrow, a rocket capable of carrying satellites into orbit.
In June 1969, the month before Saturn V blasted man to the moon, Black Arrow was launched for the first time from the Woomera Range Complex in South Australia. It failed and fell back to Earth within a minute. Launch two, a suborbital test in March 1970, was more successful. Launch three in September 1970, another failure.
