From F.K. Campbell
A. G. Rogers says that the only British satellite was launched by a Black Arrow in 1971 (Letters, 4 November). That is incorrect. The first all-British satellite was UK3 (renamed Ariel 3 when in orbit), launched by a NASA Scout rocket in May 1967. UK3 (of which I was contractors’ project manager) was the first satellite to be entirely designed and constructed in Britain. No doubt your correspondent meant that X3 (as we knew it at the time) was the first British satellite to be launched by a British launch vehicle (Black Arrow) but these are not his words.
His suggestion of reusing the Black Arrow museum exhibit is no doubt facetious, but it is quite impracticable because a large amount of ground test equipment and extensive launch facilities would have to be reconstructed, the original gear having, no doubt, been scrapped. And spares for the Black Arrow would no longer be available.
Come to that, there’s a spare UK3 languishing in some Ministry of Defence store, but who would want to perform its scientific experiments again?
