0:00:15 > 0:00:19EXPLOSION
0:00:26 > 0:00:29The space race -
0:00:29 > 0:00:34a two-horse race, you might think, between the US and the Soviet Union.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38But for a short time,
0:00:38 > 0:00:44there was an unlikely third player in the world of rocket research.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52Britain was the top scientific group in the world.
0:00:52 > 0:00:57I think we were unsurpassed as regards innovative thinking, frankly.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02So what happened to the UK's rocket programme?
0:01:02 > 0:01:09The answer is one familiar from other failed post-war British industries - lack of investment.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12We were in a very strong position,
0:01:12 > 0:01:15which we threw away as the years went on.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18Britain had lots of big brains -
0:01:18 > 0:01:22people who foresaw the future with rockets
0:01:22 > 0:01:28and space travel, but this was not pursued by the British Government.
0:01:28 > 0:01:34This is the story of the unsung pioneers of British space exploration,
0:01:34 > 0:01:39the rocket engineers, scientists, and, ultimately, the dreamers who,
0:01:39 > 0:01:41despite lack of resources,
0:01:41 > 0:01:45never gave up on bringing the future into the present.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50The passion of a bunch of engineers made something happen
0:01:50 > 0:01:56which didn't have time to be useful, and so was only delightful.
0:02:06 > 0:02:11The story of the British space race begins before the Second World War
0:02:11 > 0:02:16with the emergence of obscure rocket clubs dotted all over Europe.
0:02:16 > 0:02:21The British called theirs the BIS - the British Interplanetary Society.
0:02:21 > 0:02:26Leading member Arthur C Clarke and his contemporaries
0:02:26 > 0:02:31dreamed of a space age in which Britain would be a forerunner.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33They really do assume
0:02:33 > 0:02:39that Britain would be involved. It seems natural to them
0:02:39 > 0:02:46that the same military/industrial complex which built radar and the spitfire,
0:02:46 > 0:02:50will eventually be sending some squadron leader into orbit
0:02:50 > 0:02:53with his wind-combed moustache in his helmet.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55Arthur C Clarke says,
0:02:55 > 0:03:02"We were people who couldn't afford a car, but together could just afford the rear-view mirror."
0:03:02 > 0:03:06That's the level on which they could work.
0:03:06 > 0:03:12Rocket clubs, whether in the UK, Germany, or the Soviet Union,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16pushed forward the idea of developing rocket technology.
0:03:16 > 0:03:21In Germany, they were an ideal recruiting ground for Die Wehrmacht,
0:03:21 > 0:03:25developing what would later become the V1, V2 weapons.
0:03:25 > 0:03:32What mattered most to every country in the world, at this time, was not space, but weaponry.
0:03:32 > 0:03:38Rockets could be adapted to carry missiles and it was this that drove development.
0:03:38 > 0:03:43So, when the BIS heard rumours of a new German rocket,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46they should have been alarmed.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49This rocket would wreak havoc as the V2.
0:03:49 > 0:03:54The mastermind behind it was a space pioneer-in-waiting.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59There is only one place that the breakthrough happens.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04Only because of Wernher von Braun coming up with the V2 in Germany
0:04:04 > 0:04:09did rocket technology get to the next stage of possibility -
0:04:09 > 0:04:12that very bloody and immoral birth,
0:04:12 > 0:04:15without which there wouldn't be a space age.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20The invention of the V2 is very bad news for the population of London.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25But for the small group of British space enthusiasts in London,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28the news that the V2 exists is good.
0:04:29 > 0:04:34There is, in fact, a meeting of the British Interplanetary Society,
0:04:34 > 0:04:42in November 1944, to talk about the rumours that the Germans have started building big rockets.
0:04:42 > 0:04:49They're all sitting around, gloomily gazing into their beer, when a V2 falls, not very far away.
0:04:49 > 0:04:55There was a huge explosion. Because it travelled faster than the speed of sound,
0:04:55 > 0:05:00the sound of it arriving came after the explosion.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Terrifying business.
0:05:03 > 0:05:10This group, of all the groups of drinkers in London in November 1944, know what just happened.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14The know what it means if there's an explosion with no sound of bombers overhead.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17When the Allies later captured German scientists,
0:05:17 > 0:05:24there was a chance Britain could get hold of von Braun's rocket expertise.
0:05:24 > 0:05:29I was quite astonished by what we found in Germany.
0:05:29 > 0:05:36It was like going into an Aladdin's cave of advanced technology.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38It was, in some ways,
0:05:38 > 0:05:43quite frightening to see how far along the line they'd gone
0:05:43 > 0:05:47in this, if you like, rocket technology.
0:05:47 > 0:05:53As a test pilot with specialist engineering knowledge and rudimentary German,
0:05:53 > 0:05:58Eric Brown helped interrogate the German scientists.
0:05:58 > 0:06:03Most of the scientists were not really politically motivated.
0:06:03 > 0:06:10What motivated them was, they were given the opportunity to practise their profession,
0:06:10 > 0:06:12with huge financial backing.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15And, of course, it was their country,
0:06:15 > 0:06:20and I'm sure there was a sense of patriotism involved.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23The prize capture was Wernher von Braun.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27All the Allies coveted his rocket expertise.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31But he engineered his capture to be on US-controlled territory.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34He was full of confidence
0:06:34 > 0:06:39that he felt he was giving himself as a gift to us.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43This was because he was a brilliant scientist, no doubt about it.
0:06:43 > 0:06:50Von Braun, of course, himself had huge ideas in his own mind
0:06:50 > 0:06:53of where this was all going to lead to.
0:06:53 > 0:06:58I would say he and an elite group of his scientists
0:06:58 > 0:07:01knew what the potential was,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05which lesser men had not thought about.
0:07:05 > 0:07:10Von Braun said, "Why did we decide to surrender to the US?
0:07:10 > 0:07:17"Because we despised the French, we feared the Russians and the British could not afford us."
0:07:17 > 0:07:22If the best prize went to the US, what did the UK take from Germany?
0:07:22 > 0:07:26Water and hair dye... Well, not exactly.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28This apparently innocuous mixture
0:07:28 > 0:07:33became a very special ingredient in the British rocket quest.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37Britain got, and later turned into its trademark,
0:07:37 > 0:07:43the German work on high test peroxide, or HTP.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47Hydrogen peroxide is the same stuff used in hair bleacher.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50It's what makes peroxide blondes,
0:07:50 > 0:07:56except, the peroxide used to turn hair blonde is a 4% concentration.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00What you use in rockets is 20 times as concentrated.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04Peroxide is H2O2 water with an extra oxygen atom.
0:08:04 > 0:08:10It looks and pours like water and it's convenient as you can treat it like water.
0:08:10 > 0:08:16We will go over to C site and see a demonstration of a gamma engine.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21The firing officer is just going into the control room.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26This gamma is another unit which we have developed here.
0:08:26 > 0:08:32It forms a basis of the Black Knight engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley Motors.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37In a matter of seconds, this engine will fire.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39I'll just hang on for a minute...
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Five...four...three...two...one...
0:08:42 > 0:08:45- fire!- Here we go.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49'You don't need complicated pyrotechnic ignition systems.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54'All you have to do is to get your HTP blending with your rocket fuel
0:08:54 > 0:08:57'and the rocket runs on its own.'
0:08:57 > 0:09:02It's hard to believe that this simple mixture would give Britain
0:09:02 > 0:09:05a leading edge in the space race.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13Well, whatever you think of rockets, you must admit that that's beautiful.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18It is a very characteristic technology for the British effort,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21because it offers an elegant simplification.
0:09:21 > 0:09:26It's a way of being brilliant by side-stepping some of the problems
0:09:26 > 0:09:29other countries were getting bogged down on.
0:09:29 > 0:09:35Britain had by-passed the ignition problem - the only difficulty now?
0:09:35 > 0:09:39HTP was very dangerous and could spontaneously combust.
0:09:39 > 0:09:45The rule was that you worked in twos, one man doing the job,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48doing these nuts, or whatever,
0:09:48 > 0:09:53and the other man is standing by with a hosepipe running all the time.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58If you're undoing a nut and something were to splash a little,
0:09:58 > 0:10:03straightaway the other man would hose your hand, you, whatever it was.
0:10:03 > 0:10:09We never had to use the next stage, but at all test sites, there were large baths
0:10:09 > 0:10:15for personnel immersion. So if your mate caught fire, you'd throw him in,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19because it's the only way to extinguish, you could save his life.
0:10:19 > 0:10:24A number of people ended up in the baths without being on fire.
0:10:24 > 0:10:30Someone said "Fire!" and threw the bloke in! It was a laugh. It'd be your turn next!
0:10:30 > 0:10:38While HTP was being investigated, the development of the hydrogen bomb was exercising Western minds.
0:10:38 > 0:10:44It needed a delivery system. A rocket that would turn it into a ballistic weapon.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48Britain responded by developing Blue Streak.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54It was a solid fuel rocket,
0:10:54 > 0:11:01capable of launching a nuclear warhead from the British coast, out of the atmosphere and onto Moscow.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06It was one of many rockets developed at this time.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10They were primarily aimed as a deterrent.
0:11:10 > 0:11:15But the technology could be applied to other things and we knew this.
0:11:15 > 0:11:20We weren't given time to think about it, just carry on with the job.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25All rockets underwent rigorous static testing in the British Isles,
0:11:25 > 0:11:30from Cumbria, to the Midlands, to the Isle of Wight.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37The British programme had to fit into the smaller,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41more crowded geography of 1960's England.
0:11:41 > 0:11:48It didn't happen in the wilderness, it happened with the rest of British life going on around it.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50The test bed in the Midlands,
0:11:50 > 0:11:56got complaints from the maternity hospital next door about noise.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02The tests were certainly loud and looked alarmingly scary.
0:12:02 > 0:12:09We fired it for ten seconds to start with. Then we'd work up to 60 or 90.
0:12:09 > 0:12:15It was incredibly noisy, is my memory, and huge clouds of steam.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19We all stood a long way back because early on,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23a few had blown up, so it was a good idea to stand well away.
0:12:25 > 0:12:32The rockets didn't stay in one place. Often they were moved between firing stations.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36It was assembled into a vehicle and taken to Highdown.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39There was this rather steep cliff.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43We had two test stands, not launch stands -
0:12:43 > 0:12:45you didn't let things go.
0:12:45 > 0:12:52Everybody coming into Southampton could see this very strange site of a jet of super-heated steam
0:12:52 > 0:12:58firing sideways out of the white cliffs of the Isle of Wight.
0:12:58 > 0:13:05One engineer suggested that they paint on the side of a shed, "Home of the British Space Programme"
0:13:05 > 0:13:12but his bosses said, "No, no, no. That would be against security and it would be boasting as well."
0:13:12 > 0:13:17At the time, you didn't explain to your family what you were doing.
0:13:17 > 0:13:23I think my kids had some idea I was involved with rockets, but...
0:13:23 > 0:13:26what we were up to, they'd no idea.
0:13:26 > 0:13:33My father was convinced I was in the space programme - he told his friends I was orbiting,
0:13:33 > 0:13:37which was a bit of an embarrassment!
0:13:37 > 0:13:40But the main problem with British testing
0:13:40 > 0:13:45was that nowhere was quite remote enough to fully let the rockets go.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50So the British Government turned to the Australians.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53- REPORTER: - That's the end of a successful test.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58The rocket will now be sent to Australia. Here it is in its crate.
0:13:59 > 0:14:05And now all is ready for the flight halfway round the world to Woomera.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10We were all pushing against timescale, all the way along.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13That's what made it exciting.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17A date was fixed for flying and you had to have things ready.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22If you missed the boat, it was three months till the next one!
0:14:22 > 0:14:27We only had one firing team so we could only fire four a year, at best.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32But it was also an arrangement where the project wasn't to cost too much.
0:14:32 > 0:14:38As long as we didn't spend over £2 million a year, the RE was in charge.
0:14:38 > 0:14:45Unless you'd driven down range at Woomera, you didn't quite realise how bad the outback can be.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50I know the first time I went, I thought, "This is a joke."
0:14:50 > 0:14:55They took me to a cairn where Giles' favourite camel had died of thirst.
0:14:55 > 0:15:02You suddenly realised that the water you brought was the only one within 350 miles of where you were.
0:15:02 > 0:15:07Rockets from all over the world were taken to Woomera.
0:15:07 > 0:15:14In its five decades as a launch pad, 4,000 rockets in all were launched from there.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18# Call out the instigator
0:15:18 > 0:15:23# Because there's something in the air
0:15:23 > 0:15:30# We got to get together sooner or later
0:15:30 > 0:15:33# Because the revolution's here
0:15:33 > 0:15:36# And you know it's right... #
0:15:36 > 0:15:41When you stood at the launcher, you got to the 30-second countdown,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45and you just sat there, and it went up! And it goes straight up,
0:15:45 > 0:15:52rather fast, you know! So they disappear into the blue yonder in no time at all.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56And all the things you're there for happen out of sight.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00You stand there and say, "I wonder what's happened!"
0:16:00 > 0:16:05I know we designed experiments with ideas of what was going to happen.
0:16:05 > 0:16:13When we sat and observed it, it wasn't like that at all. We'd go back and say, "The theory's wrong, lads!"
0:16:14 > 0:16:20It was assumed that Woomera would become this Commonwealth spaceport,
0:16:20 > 0:16:25that all kinds of space exploration missions would begin there.
0:16:25 > 0:16:32There were any number of sci-fi stories written during this period
0:16:32 > 0:16:39that had the first mission to the moon beginning from Australia with a British/Australian crew -
0:16:39 > 0:16:45a great expectation that we would be there conquering space.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49But, of course, the Russians got there first.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56When the Sputnik satellite was launched on October 4th 1957,
0:16:56 > 0:17:02it set in train fears that Russia could attack the West from space.
0:17:02 > 0:17:07- Do you admire the Russians?- No. We should've been the first to have it.
0:17:07 > 0:17:13We fear they have something out there most people don't know about.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16Somebody's falling down on the job.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21As atomic testing and space science quickly gathered pace,
0:17:21 > 0:17:23public anxiety grew.
0:17:23 > 0:17:28Were scientific endeavours being achieved at the expense of mankind?
0:17:28 > 0:17:32Belief in UFOs and beings from other planets were rife.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36The TV of the day highlighted these concerns.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39Earth, as you call it,
0:17:39 > 0:17:44faces...a certain situation.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47A dangerous one.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52You are liable to upset...
0:17:52 > 0:17:57the balance of your Earth...
0:17:57 > 0:18:00through...number one...
0:18:00 > 0:18:04atomic experimentation, and, number two...
0:18:04 > 0:18:09your deviation from the spiritual laws.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12What Mr King is really doing,
0:18:12 > 0:18:17perhaps through what may well be total delusion is, nevertheless,
0:18:17 > 0:18:22uttering, in symbolic form, the cry of anxiety that divides our world.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27That our scientific interest has outrun our wisdom and humanity,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30and we're afraid it may outrun our existence.
0:18:30 > 0:18:37We delude ourselves to think there is no significance in these fears.
0:18:37 > 0:18:43Fears about rockets were matched in magnitude by a very British economic concern.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47Britain was very hard up after the war, of course.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50We were a bankrupt country.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54We helped to get Germany back on its feet financially.
0:18:54 > 0:18:59The result was our own industries were neglected.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01It was a very sad period.
0:19:01 > 0:19:08In the late 1950s as a BBC reporter, Reg Turnhill asked Minister of Supply, Aubrey Jones,
0:19:08 > 0:19:12about Government funding and got a typical response.
0:19:12 > 0:19:19- Why has it been done so cheaply? - We do all our research on a shoestring compared with the US.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22We're forced to by limited resources.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Britain had lots of big brains people.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30They drifted away. Most of our best brains
0:19:30 > 0:19:35went off to work in America. That was known as the Brain Drain.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37With such an attitude,
0:19:37 > 0:19:44it was no surprise when the Macmillan Government cancelled Blue Streak in 1960.
0:19:44 > 0:19:49Costs were soaring and the proposed rocket silos on the Norfolk coast,
0:19:49 > 0:19:54were deemed too close to North Sea oil rigs, in themselves a target.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59It was cheaper for the UK to buy Polaris from the USA.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02Military development on Blue Streak stopped.
0:20:02 > 0:20:09It would have its place in future space plans, but, for the moment, it was destined to the scrap heap.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12In 1975, the BBC's Horizon programme
0:20:12 > 0:20:17took engineer Geoffrey Pardoe to an abandoned Blue Streak hangar.
0:20:17 > 0:20:23The only Blue Streak rocket still intact, lies in an old hangar.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28It's a sad relic of Britain's prouder days.
0:20:28 > 0:20:35The heart of the whole thing came back to the two Rolls-Royce rocket engines here.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39Together they produced about 250,000 pounds of thrust,
0:20:39 > 0:20:46with the liquid propellant being delivered from the turbo pumps inside this bay - very high technology -
0:20:46 > 0:20:50and then the tank section ahead of this.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53This got a very bad press,
0:20:53 > 0:20:57but it worked every time in its development shots.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01It was one of the most successful rockets.
0:21:01 > 0:21:06This slightly stiffened kerosene bay and the liquid oxygen tank here -
0:21:06 > 0:21:11it's really just a long, pressurized, stainless steel balloon.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15The wall thickness - 19 thousandths of an inch...
0:21:15 > 0:21:19BANGING ..a few thicknesses of paper.
0:21:19 > 0:21:26The pressure in it kept it stiff throughout its flight and allowed the very low weight to be achieved,
0:21:26 > 0:21:32so the propulsion system could carry the warhead, which would've been in this bay.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35But Blue Streak wasn't quite dead.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38It would have a role in space research.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42With input from the French, Italians, and West Germans,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45ELDO - the European Launcher Development Organisation -
0:21:45 > 0:21:50was set up to develop a European satellite launcher called Europa.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53Blue Streak was to be used as its first stage.
0:21:53 > 0:22:00And snapping at Europa's heels was a new solely-British venture called Black Arrow.
0:22:00 > 0:22:05Black Arrow would use the British signature technology of high-test peroxide,
0:22:05 > 0:22:08now engineered almost to perfection since the war.
0:22:08 > 0:22:13But government investment in the satellite launcher was limited.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15'You do what you can.
0:22:15 > 0:22:20'We ran projects with all the logic of how things work together.'
0:22:20 > 0:22:22And when you can't get things done,
0:22:22 > 0:22:27you have to repackage the programme to see how you can save time.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31While the British made do on threadbare budgets,
0:22:31 > 0:22:36more wealthy nations competed for space milestones.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40Russia launched the first man into space,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43and Reg Turnill was there to find out more.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47My colleague Reginald Turnill, the BBC's air correspondent, is here.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50Reg, come and join me just one second.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54If you had any chance of asking questions at this press conference,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59- what would be the one you would put? - We still don't know how the Russians can launch these things.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04Whether they've got just very big rockets of the sort we use,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07or whether they have special fuel that we don't know about.
0:23:07 > 0:23:13HIS WORDS ARE TRANSLATED: This was a major achievement for Soviet science and for our country,
0:23:13 > 0:23:20but it was also a major achievement for world science and for the people of the whole world.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24The space race was entirely military oriented.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27We wouldn't have landed a man on the moon now
0:23:27 > 0:23:29if there hadn't been this contest
0:23:29 > 0:23:33between the Russians and America to get to the moon,
0:23:33 > 0:23:39because the military men put forward this crazy idea,
0:23:39 > 0:23:42and I was briefed about it many times,
0:23:42 > 0:23:46that the man on the high ground dominates the world.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50So the theory was that you'd better get to the moon first,
0:23:50 > 0:23:55because whoever was at the moon would call the tune militarily.
0:24:11 > 0:24:17It was the USA that won the goal for which Wernher von Braun had defected to the West.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22Some British scientists were also part of the brain drain that helped Apollo 11
0:24:22 > 0:24:26put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin onto the surface of the moon.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38In my view, the Americans had got to the moon
0:24:38 > 0:24:43on German rockets, American dollars and British brains.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47It was not wholly true, but there was a lot in it.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55'NASA soak up budgets like nobody's business,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58'and, sadly, don't produce the results
0:24:58 > 0:25:02'that we could've done on a cheaper basis with smaller teams.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06'They have enormous teams. We said they trample their problems to death,
0:25:06 > 0:25:08'whereas we had to sit down and solve them at a desk.
0:25:08 > 0:25:14When it comes down to it, they're not producing anything better than we were.
0:25:14 > 0:25:19By 1971, British Politicians were getting twitchy.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24Debate was raging over whether the UK should continue with rocket development
0:25:24 > 0:25:28while the USA was offering us free piggyback rides into space.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33British money could surely be spent better on public services.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36Meanwhile, Black Arrow was on its way to Australia
0:25:36 > 0:25:38to prepare for an all-British milestone -
0:25:38 > 0:25:42the launching of a satellite into space.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Heath's Minister for Aerospace stood up in the House of Commons
0:25:45 > 0:25:49and announced that the Black Arrow programme was cancelled.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52But the engineers were given the chance
0:25:52 > 0:25:55to try to prove their system just once more,
0:25:55 > 0:26:00since the rocket was already on its way, everything was already in place.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04So they knew before they tried to launch
0:26:04 > 0:26:07that, succeed or fail, the programme was already over.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11That success was not actually going to accomplish anything.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15The satellite due to be launched into orbit underwent a name change.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20Instead of Puck, the Shakespearean sprite who flies around the world with ease,
0:26:20 > 0:26:26the engineers renamed it Prospero, after the tired magician who lays down his books.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28Could they pull off one last magic trick,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31to prove that Britain could get into orbit?
0:26:31 > 0:26:36Man years of their work, and their dedication, and their passion,
0:26:36 > 0:26:40and their very serious professional design skills,
0:26:40 > 0:26:43were invested in this thing.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48So, with the most loving caution imaginable,
0:26:48 > 0:26:54the team set it up on its launch site at Woomera,
0:26:54 > 0:26:58and began the countdown, stopping for anything
0:26:58 > 0:27:03that looked as if it could conceivably go wrong, because this was their last chance.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15But nothing did go wrong.
0:27:15 > 0:27:17The last flight of Black Arrow was successful,
0:27:17 > 0:27:23and the satellite Prospero was launched over 550km into orbit.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26Great elation all round the department.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30The little ministry man turned up at the office,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33and we got together to listen to him, cos we thought
0:27:33 > 0:27:37he'd come to say how well we'd done and what the next phase would be,
0:27:37 > 0:27:39and all the little so-and-so had come to tell us was,
0:27:39 > 0:27:44"It was a good job, wasn't it? Please wrap it up and send the bill in."
0:27:44 > 0:27:46And it's resented even to this day.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50You can talk to people and they'll say, "It was a bad day, wasn't it?"
0:27:50 > 0:27:54Any mention of Prospero, and they'll almost start to weep.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57The British Government thought it had learned by experience,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01in the 1960s, that space was a waste of money.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05The irony here is that the last ride of the Black Arrow
0:28:05 > 0:28:12happens only a very few years before the great age of the commercial satellite begins,
0:28:12 > 0:28:17when all of the money which had been fired up in orbit started raining down.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20Ariane, which the French went ahead with,
0:28:20 > 0:28:24as much for reasons of national technological pride,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27as from commercial calculations
0:28:27 > 0:28:29was a commercial success,
0:28:29 > 0:28:33because it was there already in the late-1970s.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38Black Arrow would now be a very handy rocket launcher.
0:28:38 > 0:28:43There are lots of 100kg satellites it would be nice to launch...
0:28:43 > 0:28:47The UK pulled out of rocketry all together
0:28:47 > 0:28:50and we settled down...
0:28:50 > 0:28:55The Government decided that our scientific establishments
0:28:55 > 0:28:57could provide components
0:28:57 > 0:29:00for other people's satellites
0:29:00 > 0:29:03and expertise, and so on.
0:29:03 > 0:29:08So we became small-bit players in the whole thing.
0:29:08 > 0:29:14The old imperial power, Great Britain, was starting to lose her way.
0:29:14 > 0:29:19She reduced her majority share in the European Launcher Development Organisation
0:29:19 > 0:29:21and pulled out British engineers.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26Whereas the farsighted French carried on with the profitable launching business,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29British rocket engineering became a thing of the past.
0:29:29 > 0:29:35Over the next few decades, UK governments wavered with intermittent space funding
0:29:35 > 0:29:39and a largely fruitless search for private investment.
0:29:39 > 0:29:44Our politicians have taken the view... I know it was true from how they worked with the French,
0:29:44 > 0:29:50that if we'd got something small that wanted launching, you asked one of the others to do it for you.
0:29:50 > 0:29:55This brings us to the point where the British Government made, years back, a decision
0:29:55 > 0:30:02that they would distance themselves from what they call launchers. Not satellites - they still make those.
0:30:02 > 0:30:07They always screw it to the side of a bus, if you like, that happened to be going the right way,
0:30:07 > 0:30:12and ask them to kick it off at a certain Tube station. It goes into its own little orbit
0:30:12 > 0:30:15and the rest goes on to something else. This is very sad.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18That ruins all the work that we did - it throws it in the bin
0:30:18 > 0:30:23because the technology for making satellites smaller, better, more capable,
0:30:23 > 0:30:27doesn't require any rocket-engine technology at all.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31It meant that instead of being the second-last nation,
0:30:31 > 0:30:33as we were after the war,
0:30:33 > 0:30:38we're now the third-last nation. Nobody thinks we can afford to do anything.
0:30:38 > 0:30:45We could, really. It's just, the French decide to do something and worry about the money after.
0:30:46 > 0:30:53The rest of the 20th century saw Britain half-heartedly supporting various space projects.
0:30:53 > 0:30:59The HOTOL - horizontal takeoff and landing - idea came and went.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06The British National Space Centre was set up...
0:31:06 > 0:31:12This is an exciting time for space and a very important day for the space industry in Britain.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16..and then hit badly by withdrawal of funding seven years later.
0:31:17 > 0:31:23When Halley's Comet came, British-built Giotto was there to photograph it.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28But, a year later, the UK effectively pulled out of the European Space Agency
0:31:28 > 0:31:33by refusing to back French astronauts with British money.
0:31:33 > 0:31:39MARGARET THATCHER: It is correct that we have not been able to find the extremely considerable amount
0:31:39 > 0:31:42of extra expenditure that was requested...
0:31:42 > 0:31:46We shall continue our subscription to the European Space Agency,
0:31:46 > 0:31:49but we are not able to find more money.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53It seemed the British had deserted the questing space spirit
0:31:53 > 0:31:55until only very recently.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04Good evening. Look up into the southeast fairly late on,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07and you will see the red planet Mars.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11In August, it will be as close to us as it will ever be -
0:32:11 > 0:32:14less than 35 million miles.
0:32:14 > 0:32:16Can there be life there?
0:32:16 > 0:32:19That's what we want to find out,
0:32:19 > 0:32:21and, I think, soon we'll do so.
0:32:21 > 0:32:27By the 21st century, Britain's main technological focus had drifted to satellites and probes
0:32:27 > 0:32:30and received little attention from the public.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34But then Mars came close to Earth, and British scientists had a chance
0:32:34 > 0:32:38to get there. The public found themselves enthralled.
0:32:38 > 0:32:4130 seconds to go. Will this search for life on Mars
0:32:41 > 0:32:45get off the ground? There's no stopping the countdown now.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47The ignition is about to begin...
0:32:47 > 0:32:51Any second, the main engines will start. There they go right now.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55You can see the flames. There's so much riding on this.
0:32:55 > 0:33:00Europe's first mission to Mars, Britain's first attempt to find life beyond Earth.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02Here it goes! Any second now!
0:33:09 > 0:33:13When the Beagle probe was launched from Kazakhstan on a Russian rocket,
0:33:13 > 0:33:20British scientist Professor Colin Pillinger and his team stepped back into the arena of space,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23where Britain had always been a third-class citizen.
0:33:26 > 0:33:31We couldn't wait. Mars was the closest it was ever going to be.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34We knew we had one chance, and we were gonna go for it
0:33:34 > 0:33:37in a single shot.
0:33:37 > 0:33:42In the spirit of great explorers, it was decided to name the probe Beagle 2,
0:33:42 > 0:33:47after Darwin's to find new life forms on the HMS Beagle expedition to South America.
0:33:47 > 0:33:53Pillinger played up the pioneer explorer role of his own search for life on Mars,
0:33:53 > 0:33:59and the media indulgently reported the project as Britain's latest great boffin space quest.
0:33:59 > 0:34:04'Professor Colin Pillinger is proud that his Mars space craft,
0:34:04 > 0:34:05'Beagle II,
0:34:05 > 0:34:07'fits in a supermarket trolley.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11'This is eccentric, under-funded British science at its best.'
0:34:11 > 0:34:17These are some of the people who'll be running Beagle II.
0:34:17 > 0:34:22When we think of mission control, we imagine a huge room in NASA with hundreds of people.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26For Beagle II, this is mission control -
0:34:26 > 0:34:31an upstairs room at the Open University in Milton Keynes.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33The Beagle was over-hyped
0:34:33 > 0:34:36and this was why it was such a disappointment.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39It got too much publicity for once.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43'Hopes of finding the Beagle II Mars probe are fading rapidly.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48'Scientists have admitted the best chance of making contact
0:34:48 > 0:34:50'with Beagle II has failed.
0:34:50 > 0:34:56'The Beagle's chief scientist wasn't giving up and would hear no talk of failure.'
0:34:56 > 0:35:01We have demonstrated that people are interested in science and technology.
0:35:01 > 0:35:06And we have to capitalise on that.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09Space missions go wrong at launch.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12In the case of Beagle,
0:35:12 > 0:35:18we always looked at everything we achieved as another tick in the box.
0:35:18 > 0:35:24The team knew the risks and the things you had to do.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28The media were almost more broken-hearted than we were
0:35:28 > 0:35:32when we didn't get that signal from Beagle II.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38People were really taken by surprise
0:35:38 > 0:35:41when Beagle II became famous.
0:35:41 > 0:35:46They were surprised to know they could hope for Britain to do that thing,
0:35:46 > 0:35:51because Britain does virtual engineering these days.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55It's because of Beagle that people are now thinking again
0:35:55 > 0:36:01about the almost forgotten history of the British space programme.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16You have to appreciate
0:36:16 > 0:36:21that it isn't easy to launch things into space and it isn't easy to get to Mars.
0:36:21 > 0:36:26I would be very sad if people took this
0:36:26 > 0:36:29as a one-off nasty dream,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32it's now gone away, we'll never do this again.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35Because it is absolutely certain
0:36:35 > 0:36:38that if we'd kept going in the rocket programme,
0:36:38 > 0:36:40it would have been Blue Streak, not Arian.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44I wish we could have made more of it.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47But I understand why we couldn't.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50I really do want to know what's out there.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56Up in our roof at home, there's a long shelf
0:36:56 > 0:37:01of projects that might have been, and still people don't want them.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04I said to my wife, "Shall we throw these out?"
0:37:04 > 0:37:07She said, "No, the world hasn't caught up yet."
0:37:07 > 0:37:11They're still there and we did experiments to prove they'd work.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15And it's very frustrating, but that's life.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20We should remember that both Australia and Britain had the vision of space.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24The dream has always been there and it remains there.
0:37:24 > 0:37:29And although you can look back and say with some bitterness at times,
0:37:29 > 0:37:31"Look what we gave up!"
0:37:31 > 0:37:35You can also look back and say, "Look what we achieved."
0:37:39 > 0:37:44In some way, the peculiarities of British boffins
0:37:44 > 0:37:49are a sign of the threadbare footing they have to do their engineering on.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53What we need to do is to retire boffins
0:37:53 > 0:37:58and have engineers instead, preferably with large enough budgets.
0:37:58 > 0:38:04We should be getting back into manned space flight.
0:38:04 > 0:38:09That's the only way we're going to encourage our young people.
0:38:09 > 0:38:15It's never too late. It's not good to be late, but better late than never.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34Subtitles by BBC Broadcast Ltd - 2004
0:38:34 > 0:38:37E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk