Britain technically has a ‘space program’. But it’s one that can’t launch anything, barely employs anyone and has a miniscule annual budget.
This has not always been the case.
This video is a technical deep dive into an unusual launch system that had a tragically short life: Black Arrow. 50 years later, we look back and imagine what could have been, had the UK government not cancelled the program. And we take a look at where UK spaceflight is today and how a revival of Black Arrow’s legacy may be around the corner.
And yes, I know Black Arrow is ‘officially’ capitalized. But I don’t want the title to appear like clickbait.
3D modelling by Artem Tatarchenko
Instagram: hedgehog.rave
(the lower quality renders without the watermark were done by me)
NASA video clips from NASA Image and Video Library
Black Arrow launch footage: IWM
Sources:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/da6hsxxfvtzlv1y1vgb4f/black-arrow-sources.ods?rlkey=bqyo52t3l70nla6x3r2akmgmm&dl=0
00:00 Intro
00:50 system overview
12:37 the peroxide engine cycle
20:10 engine design
29:20 aerodynamic stability
34:47 launch history
36:44 politics
44:11 the next 50 years
56:21 present day
01:00:29 outro
43 Comments
Corrections:
I keep mispronouncing ‘Woomera’ throughout the video. Get a grip Alex.
In the ‘engine cycle’ section I mixed up units for pressure. All the stated pressures are out by a factor of 10. Just imagine me saying ‘bar’ instead of ‘MPa’ every time I state a pressure to get the correct value. Thanks @ryanrising2237 for spotting my error.
10:57. I meant ‘apogee’ I also managed to put an extra ‘r’ in ‘perigee’ for some reason. (Thanks @Etropalker)
4:00 it was a very dangerous design.
We don't need one the USA has one we are one in the same.
Most unrealistic part of Doctor Who is all those British space missions
Britain politicians like to destroyed its own aerospace industry.
This is brilliant, kept me glued to the screen for over an hour, the amount of research you have done is pretty awesome, the least I can do is subscribe.
6:05 this is good but MORE GRAPHICS please!
57:10 [cough] HS2 [cough]
Kudos on this comprehensively detailed video, made the rocket nerd side of me very happy. Liked and subscribed.
Love how the American government dropped the discount after the Britain government abandoned its space program. Reminds me of how they encouraged the Canadian government to drop the Avro Arrow by offering us the ridiculous Bomarc nuclear SAM. They love competition, right?*
*only when its between American companies
👍
Thank you for this video. You articulate the disappointment that I feel in UK governments and culture.
Fyi, lots of related information here and a great read to boot 👍 https://www.dst.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/documents/Fire%20Across%20the%20Desert.pdf
01:23 a partnership hahaha they are a british colony they had no choice. . . .
There's an interesting graphic novel called "Ministry of Space" that tells an alternate history where Britain led the space race.
Good to see another brit covering the UK space industry. I feel there should be more of us and interest in what's happening right now. Good job on the history side of things mate
The biggest reason they don't, is because they tried to be like America, and get into literally everything.
Sadly, they don't have the population, or the GDP to pay for researching everything.
And they lost a lot of money trying.
A country with a small population, needs to specialize, not get into literally everything.
There's still a few of us in these British Isles that are space bonkers. I have a friend working with one of the companies right now, we may yet get to space, despite the UK government.
Can you consider making a video about EKVs? Such as the ones shown in this video?
https://youtu.be/RnofCyaWhI0?si=AD8nfZ4KNc0WYJpj
This looks like science fiction. To think it was done in 1980!
GB sure shot it's self in the foot in aerospace in the 2-3 decades after WWII. They went from being #1 or 2 in the world of jet engines and planes and we're on track to do the same in space….then they allowed leftists to destroy the programs and they just rusted away
the history of UK engineering (space, military, aero, everything…) can be summed up with a pretty popular saying "talented engineers, incompetent politicians". handley page victor, nimrod MRA4, warrior csp etc etc… and even the space progarm. its just sad to see.
Basically we gave up our space program and our aerospace industry to please the Americans,we gave up our other industries tto please Europe and then we gave up our own nuclear weapons programs in exchange for Trident from America,this means we basically do what we're told these days and go to war where we're told to go to war,we are basically a giant aircraft carrier,like Japan,and administration comes from the EU, we've been sold out on where we could be today, because politics,not for lack of talents, but that nuke deterent we've got,the red button is in the white house, not no10 downing st,and that's why there's no future in this country anymore, meanwhile North Korea, Pakistan, Japan, China, India and now some south American nations are all going to space, mainly because they have politicians that don't sell out their own,but he ho,it an embarrassment and a disgrace
From bitter personal experience I know that the British have an exceptionally low opinion of Americans and they make no bones about it. As a recovering Anglophile this criticism stings like heck.
How then do the British explain US success in space exploration? I’ve asked. The answer I usually get goes like this. If the UK had any interest in spaceflight we British would dominate the field with our superior technology and innovation. We’d leave everyone else in the dust.
Really? Do the Brits really believe that they could do it better if only they had the desire?
After the war the UK was rationing food they had no problem funding the development of their own Hydrogen Bomb and delivery system. It's all a matter priorities. The British saw the developing atomic arms race between the US and the USSR and they felt that they couldn't afford not to enter the competition.
Excellent! Well researched and presented. Looking forward to your Blue Streak appraisal. Can highly recommend "A Vertical Empire" by Hill about the UK space development efforts.
In the World War 2 movie The Caine Mutiny the Destroyer Mine Sweep USS Caine steams to San Francisco for repairs. The year is 1944. Young Ensign Keith is given shore leave and he uses the time to take his girlfriend on a four day dream vacation.
They go to Yosemite where they stay at the stunning Ahwahnee Hotel, ride horses, explore the wilderness and watch the Firefall. As incredible as that might sound what we see on the screen isn’t far from the truth. Moviegoers of 1952 accepted it as realistic.
Contrast that with the experience of the average Jr. Grade British naval officer. While London was being bombed Americans were surfing the beaches of Malibu and Miami. Considering that how could the UK afford spaceflight?
Perhaps as a british aerospace student building a liquid rocket I'm in a small niche, but I genuinely believe this is the best piece of content on the platform
your lengthy unit discussion puts me off actually, just pick metric without all the fuss about foots and inches!
I was under the impression the uk didn't invent anything anymore, thought they just waited for Americans to do it then ask if they can borrow it.
What annoys me is the "waste of public money" aspect. Where do the people who believe this think the money goes to?
Do they think the money disappears with the rocket?
I know hindsight is a great thing, but I think it was a waste of an opportunity rather than a waste of money.
The value of a "low cost" reliable satellite delivery system is unbelievable.
So much potential for scientific and economical advances lost by people who can't see past the next election.
25:40 Was the moment when I decided to subscribe. Digging up an old schematic and trying to understand it by coloring in the pathways with your son's coloring pencils? That, sir, is a mark of a true engineer; though personally I'd use crayons.
Speaking of reading old aerospace documents, in case you didn't know already, the channel Smarter Every Day released a video recently in which he boldly tells the leaders of the US space program to read "NASA SP 287 — What Made Apollo a Success". It's an 87-page retrospective by the people who did it. If you haven't read it already, I think you would enjoy it.
As long as I'm writing about YouTube channels by people who go back and read the original specs, I should mention Eager Space. The author has been known to file US Freedom Of Information Act requests to obtain documents about the US space program. Worth a look.
For completeness, I'll mention one more. Anyone watching this video probably already knows about Everyday Astronaut. Just to be sure however, if you liked this video, you definitely want to visit that channel.
In 1905, the Royal Navy wanted to build a battleship of a revolutionary new design, with a propulsion system that had never been tried before in such ships. They paid the workers extra to get them to work overtime to get it done. It was launched in a hundred days, and complete in under a year. HMS Dreadnought made every other warship in the world obsolete at once, and she changed naval warfare forever.
Once, the British Empire was at the front of innovation. Post-WW2 UK has no drive to innovate or even get their hands dirty in engineering and innovation. My theory; with the Empire gone and the UK in twilight, the UK is desperate to look backwards at their finest years, while clinging to every cent of budget to slow the decline. They'll never spend on doing something new because that would risk whatever budget they have. They've lost their balls.
We didn't need a land based ballistic missile so it was cancelled. Made a lot of sense.
Frankly, it is incredibly British that their one and only satellite put into orbit themselves is still steadfastly orbiting the planet to this very day
One of my favorite channels on YouTube, great video! RIP Black Arrow 🙁
Being very familiar with British cars, I always figured Britain didn’t have a space program because they couldn’t figure out how to make rockets leak oil.
We should never ignore the effect the USA has on UK development since WWII, with political pressure applied to drop a range of projects with vague promises of information and technology sharing which are never forthcoming. Technological and scientific discovery only flow one way in the UK, and it's not inwards.
The US put the pressure on for the UK to cancel the space program and buy trident. they did the same thing with TSR2. the projects were too good!
Beautiful work, meticulously described, and wisely including the reality of political inertia and resistance. Thank you.
However, you really were most unkind to the impressive cohort of very innovative and more than technically competent Australians that also helped make these historic launches happen.
When Britain decided to kill it's space program, the ever-faithful-to-the-crown Australian PM Menzies also took that as an instruction to Australia, and a great dark age of Space Science oblivion started. NASA took a lot of our cool kit and any Australian citizen wanting to work in Space Science had to leave home for Europe or the US.
After finally forming a Space Agency way way later than anyone else, Australia is making small steps towards using its latent talent.
Lets also remember that most of the Nuclear weapon tests Britain did were in Australia too, at around the same time.
Britain didn't just dampen it's own ambitions, by abandoning a space program, knowingly or otherwise it also harmed Australia's.
you forgot about the private sector, Top Gear converted a Reliant Robin into a shuttle and nearly sent it to space. Mission failed sure, but this is still more than at least 100 other countries attempted to.
I'm more of a cautionary tale than a role model and I don't have kids of my own, but I've never understood the philosophy that space programs exist to inspire children (56:14). Maybe I missed your point.
I think we all forget just how broke Britain was, Engineers find ways to spend money and Britain had none after paying for two world wars, the NHS and an ongoing cold war. In fact British Aerospace Dynamics Group (BADG) formed a technology partnership with Hughes. Marconi Space and Defence Systems (MSDS) partnered with Ford Aerospace and the outcome was the very successful Eurostar, 3 axis stabilised communications satellite bus, the second of which was Inmarsat 1. It was known at the time as MARECS. Projects I worked on included pretty clever payloads for Meteosat (a spinner with a de-spun payload platform like the MA931), ERS1, EXOSAT (which used re-purposed Chevaline Technology) Skynet and Inmarsat 3. Other friends worked on IUE and Skynet 2. Britain had to work on projects that made money because it was broke and launchers were expensive and very high risk. There were British bits on Ariane 4 and 5 (I made some of them) but only because Matra couldn't get them made elsewhere. Really interesting was the GPO sponsored TV satellite with 3X100 watt TWTAs made instantly obsolete by the invention of the FET but that as they say is another story.
Love how north korea has a more successful space program than the UK lmfao
You sound like an Angry Astronaut 😂
And an Everyday Astronaut has an excellent video about rocket engine cycles.
The HTP turbopump resembles a V2 one.