Britain In Space

Hello Gang,
I would like to direct your attention to several sources of information concerning the history of Britain in space.

Britain in Space

If Britain had rejected satellites it would have been easier to reject the next major advance, and the next, and the next. There would have been no end to it. Yes, there would have been an end. Britain would have become a Switzerland with a few specialised skills - an admirable little Switzerland, but not a Britain.
- Ivan Southall, Woomera, 1962

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/6133/index.html

and

British space program
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_space_program

The British Interplanetary Society

http://www.bis-spaceflight.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Interplanetary_Society

Another great source of information are two CDs available from the British Interplanetary Society:

The High Road to the Moon

The collected pictures of R.A. Smith with text by Bob Parkinson. Originally published in 1979.

Project Daedalus
The BIS Starship Study first published in 1978.

http://www.bis-spaceflight.com/sitesia.aspx/page/297/Node/108/l/en-us

Its rather surprising that the United Kingdom never took part in a major way in joint efforts with the United States in the exploration. Or, developed a full fledged space program of its own. It wasn't because of a major lack of technical know how but, a major lack of political will as outlined in "A Vertical Empire: The History of the UK Rocket and Space Programme, 1950-1971" by C.N. Hill.

http://www.amazon.com/Vertical-Empire-History-Programme-1950-1971/dp/1860942679/sr=8-5/qid69881023/ref=sr_1_5/104-7434608-4783907?ie=UTF8&s=books

The UK had a lot of technical talent in the British Interplanetary Society (BIS). They did one of the first major feasibility studies back in 1939 of sending a manned mission to the Moon and, in the post war era studied the technical feasibility of nuclear rockets. And, in the 1970s studied the possibility of a full scale unmanned interstellar mission using nuclear pulsed fusion: Project Daedalus.

One can only hope that they accept NASA's invitation.

Alex Michael Bonnici

Enjoy,

Alex Michael Bonnici