Cheshire’s unlikely role in the race to conquer space
Jodrell Bank, our newest world heritage site, is a hub of inter-galactic discovery, says Joe Shute
On July 20 1969, the vast radar of Jodrell Bank was, as ever, tuned in. Since its construction as the world’s largest radio telescope in 1957 – the same year the Soviets launched Sputnik, sending the space race into hyperspeed – the Cheshire observatory had played a vital role in tracking spacecraft operated by both the Soviets and Americans.
And on that summer’s evening, as man’s race to the moon neared its thrilling conclusion, its team, led by director Sir Bernard Lovell, was working overtime. The Lovell telescope was monitoring radio signals not just from Apollo 11’s Eagle Lander but a separate unmanned Soviet Luna 15 spacecraft, which even in those final moments was hoping to beat the Americans over the line.
In Jodrell Bank’s archives, they still possess the signals taken from the Eagle Lander. At one stage, the line of the graph wavers from its smooth progress – marking the moment Neil Armstrong took manual control of the spacecraft to locate a suitable landing point.
The unmanned Soviet aircraft was unable to make such last-minute navigational tweaks, slamming into a mountain on the moon at 200mph and exploding. A decade ago, Jodrell Bank unearthed audio of Sir Bernard and his staff in the control room that night. “I say!” exclaims a voice, after having seen the Soviet craft obliterated. “This has really been drama of the highest order.”
The 50th anniversary of the moon landing presents an opportunity for Jodrell Bank to reflect not just upon its role in the Cold War, but the part it continues to play today.
The Lovell telescope, with its 76-metre (249ft) diameter bowl, remains the third largest of its type and so sensitive – as they like to remind visitors – that it can detect a mobile phone signal from Mars.
As of a fortnight ago, it is also Britain’s newest world heritage site, having been awarded Unesco status to join the ranks of the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu and Stonehenge. Prof Teresa Anderson,
the director of the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, attended the ceremony in Azerbaijan alongside her husband Prof Tim O’Brien, associate director for the Jodrell Bank Centre of Astrophysics.
“We celebrated with a cup of tea,” the 56-year-old says. “I had a little cry with all the emotion of it.”
The Grade-I listed steel frame which supports the Lovell telescope is a fixture in the North West. This weekend it plays host to the annual Blue Dot Festival, attended by Dr Brian Cox and scientific luminaries from across Britain. Already, 185,000 people visit annually and, according to Prof Anderson, following the Unesco announcement numbers have doubled – something it is hoped can inspire a new generation of enthusiasts.
By the time the telescope was completed in 1957, Prof O’Brien – who knew Sir Bernard before he died in 2012 – admits that the observatory, which is part of Manchester University, had “massively overspent”.
Sir Bernard claimed he was “saved” from ruin by the launch of Sputnik on Oct 1, 1957.
“Lovell got a phone call from the British air ministry to ask if he could track the rocket carrying the satellite for defence reasons,” Prof O’Brien says. “Over the course of the next week, they got a radar echo off it. That was pure coincidence. The telescope was never intended to track spacecraft.”
Prof Anderson describes Jodrell Bank’s role during the space race as “a sort of scientific Switzerland”. It was relied upon by both sides: when the Soviets first sent a rocket moon-wards in 1959, the timings and frequencies of the launch were shared with Jodrell Bank, enabling scientists to track it.
Today, Jodrell Bank remains one of the foremost radio observatories in the world.
The Lovell telescope is trained beyond the moon, looking at supernova remnants in our own galaxy, star formations and ancient dusty galaxies from which radio waves still emanate.
With typical Northern bluntness, Prof Anderson sums up the excitement that, 50 years on, there is a resurgence of attempts to send humans to distant planets.
“The future of humanity is in space,” she says. “So we might as well get on with it.”