Blast-off as Britain joins space race from the back of a lorry
IT BLASTED OFF from a flatbed truck, its sole occupant a stuffed toy dog from the local primary school. But the successful, if brief, launch yesterday of Britain’s largest rocket paves the way for the UK to take a giant leap in the space race.
Steve Bennett, who founded his own firm in the hope of sending people into space, believes he is just two years away from realising his dream.
The next step is the development of the Nova II, a three-seater rocket powered by fuel made partly from recycled tyres, and which he hopes will be able to lift a capsule that can carry humans.
It was all dependent on the success of the Skybolt 2, which was fired into the atmosphere from the back of a converted truck in Northumberland before breaking up and descending back to Earth by parachute some 30 seconds later.
“We’re really pleased with that launch. The rocket went really well, it flew nice and high exactly as it should do,” Mr Bennett said. “Then it split apart in its separate pieces, which is one of the key tests we were doing, and two of the three parachutes deployed, which is not a bad day.
“Next for us is a much bigger rocket. That was an 8.3metre [28.9ft] rocket but we have a 12metre rocket big enough to carry a person and we’ll be launching that within 18 months.”
It may have been a far cry from the US Apollo missions, but it was the first large rocket Britain has sent into the atmosphere since 1971. The launch was two years in the making, and the result a boost for Mr Bennett’s Manchesterbased Starchaser Industries.
The rocket carried a payload including video cameras and a toy dog on loan from Morecambe Bay Primary school, Lancs, as it reached its maximum height of 4,000ft. Around 50 people watched the take-off, before the rocket landed in three pieces roughly two miles away. The launch was to test electronic systems and a parachute recovery system.
Prof Nick Avis, dean of the University of Chester’s science and engineering faculty, which is supporting the project, told The Daily Telegraph: “It’s fantastic for the UK space industry. Of course, there are bigger players – Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and Spacex – but here’s Steve doing it on a shoestring by comparison, building up capabilities and proving credentials.” Prof Avis said that solid and liquid fuel motors were used in the Apollo flights and, “Steve is planning to use a hybrid of the two – the solid fuel bit of that is recycled tyres impregnated with aluminium,”.
“He is one of the world’s leaders in these solid/fuel hybrids,” he added.