Leicester in Space: 1960-69

The University of Leicester has a long and distinguished record of involvement in space science. In the first of a series of blog posts written for the 50th anniversary (2011), Professor Ken Pounds describes how Leicester came to be in the forefront of space research and charts the milestones in space exploration.

Nations around the world first became aware of the potential of ‘space’ with the launch of Sputnik in October 1957.

This first man-made satellite, launched by the Soviet Union, was front page news for days. The impact in the USA was dramatic, and they responded within a year with their own satellite, Vanguard, and NASA was created.

Although at a much lower level than in the USSR and USA, there were already plans to explore the ‘peaceful use of space’ in the UK. The Royal Society formed a high level group to look into the possibilities and development of the Skylark research rocket, which began in 1955 at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough.

The upshot was a programme of scientific research, with an early player being the new ‘Rocket research group’ at University College London. I joined that group as its first research student in 1956 with the task of developing techniques to measure X-radiation from the Sun (a measure of solar activity).

It turned out the vacuum equipment I needed to check out my instruments before flight already existed in the Physics Department at Leicester.

By 1959 the research was going well, and it was decided to establish a new university group to specialise in X-ray observations from space. Leicester was by then the obvious place and I was offered an assistant lectureship, to come here and lead the project. The salary of £700 was too good an offer for a research student to refuse. So I came in January 1960, and in July we were awarded a grant of £13,006 from DSIR to study solar and stellar X-ray emissions.

1961

Skylark rocket launch from Woomera in South Australia puts first Leicester-built instrument into space. Start of a research programme studying the link between X-radiation from the Sun and radio propagation in the Earth’s atmosphere.

1962

April: Launch of first British satellite, Ariel 1, from Cape Canaveral (now Kennedy Space Center) on a NASA Delta rocket. Payload included solar X-ray detectors developed at the University.

Discovery by US team of first cosmic X-ray source, Scorpius X-1, heralding the start of a new branch of astronomy in which Leicester was to become a major player. (The 2002 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Riccardo Giacconi who led that pioneering effort.)
July: Solar X-ray detectors on Ariel 1 ‘killed’, as a result of radiation damage caused by USAF nuclear test in the atmosphere over the South Pacific. (Such tests were subsequently banned, although not only for damaging our equipment!)

1964

European Space Research Organisation (forerunner of ESA) formed, with ambitious programme of space science. UK initially the major scientific and financial contributor.

1965

Skylark-borne camera obtains first X-ray images of the Sun.

1967

Leicester Skylark launched from Woomera carries out the first survey of the Southern Hemisphere sky for cosmic X-ray sources.

ESRO-2, Europe’s first space science satellite, with Leicester solar X-ray equipment on board, fails as USAF Scout rocket malfunctions at Vandenberg AFB launch.
NASA launch Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO)-4, an advanced mission to study the Sun, with X-ray equipment from Leicester. This launch began an unbroken period of 30 years’ duration, with Leicester-built X-ray instruments operating in orbit.

1968

Re-launch of ESRO-2 (ESRO-2b) reaches Earth orbit to begin a successful two-year study of solar activity and its effects on the Earth.

1969

NASA launch OSO-5, a further science mission to study the Sun. On board is an X-ray telescope from Leicester which, for the next six years, provides the international scientific community with daily images of solar activity. This research was the fore-runner of ‘solar weather forecasting’, now a major international research effort.