The SKYLARK rocket dominates our newly-revamped foyer in the School of Physics and Astronomy. This blog post provides some of the history of Leicester’s involvement in the SKYLARK project.
The involvement of the School of Physics and Astronomy in major space missions began with work developing instruments for Sounding Rocket flights. Starting in 1961, the Department has flown instruments on almost 70 sounding rockets, in programmes conducted by NASA and ESA, as well as in the British Skylark programme which was at its peak during the 1960’s and 70’s.
The majority of these instruments have been concerned with observations of astronomical objects at Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths.
SKYLARK originated in 1955 when the Royal Society embarked on a programme of upper atmosphere research associated with the International Geophysical Year of 1957/58. Initially the project called for an unguided, fin-stabilized vehicle capable of lifting a 45kg scientific payload to an altitude of around 100km. By collaboration with the royal aircraft establishment (RAE) at Farnborough this requirement progressed quickly to the design and construction of the first SKYLARK in 1956. At the same time, production of a suitable solid propellant motor was undertaken by the Rocket propulsion establishment (RPE) at Westcott and the Banwell division of Bristol aircraft Ltd. Given the name Raven – in keeping with RPE’s ornithological naming system- it was the biggest solid fuel rocket motor then in use, with a specific impulse of 1780 N s kg -1 (sea level) and a burning time of 30 seconds.
A 30 metre gimbal mounted launch tower made from bailey bridge panels was also designed by the RAE team and was constructed by the Royal Ordnance factory at Woolwich. The complete launcher was erected at the Woomera (South Australia) rocket range by May 1956 and the first SKYLARK – a technological vehicle – was launched on 13th February 1957. After a further vehicle proving flight, the first scientific experiments were flown in SL 03 in July 1957; these were followed by a series of launches associated with the 1957/58 international geophysical year.
SKYLARK’s performance was greatly enhanced in 1960 by the addition of a booster stage (Cuckoo) burning for 4 seconds, giving 80 kN thrust and adding about 40% to the peak height for a given payload mass. Later additions to the SKYLARK motor family were the Goldfinch booster and Raven XI, which when used together gave an apogee of over 500 km for a payload of 100 kg mass.
Another important SKYLARK development was the introduction of a 3-axis stabilized attitude control unit (ACU) developed jointly by RAE and Elliot Automation Ltd., Frimley. The ACU was initially designed as a sun-pointing unit but later versions were available with sun, moon or star pointing sensors. After August 1964, many attitude controlled SkylarK s were launched, gathering much new information about the nature of the solar disk and other Galactic phenomena. Over 300 SKYLARKs were launched for scientific research purposes, yielding a very noteworthy success record.
While SKYLARKs are still in use, their application to astronomical research in the UK came to an end in 1978. Leicester scientists continued their rocket work through collaboration in the NASA sounding rocket programme. These flights made use of the Astrobee-F, of similar capability to the SKYLARK, and the Canadian Black Brant Vc. By 1985, diminishing scientific returns from the short observation times available with sounding rockets no longer justified the costs and involvement in these missions ceased.
However, most recently, we have developed new, much more efficient instruments that allow us to obtain significant scientific results within the time allowed by a sounding rocket flight. After a gap of 15 years, we have twice flown the Joint Plasmadynamic Experiment (J-PEX), a high-resolution extreme ultraviolet spectrometer, on a Black Brant IX rocket. The Black Brant IX is a two-stage system comprising a Terrier booster and Vc upper stage, which allows our heavy telescope to reach an altitude of 280km.
Shown below is a summary of SKYLARKs and other rockets used by the University of Leicester X-ray and Observational Astronomy group in their research programme since 1961.
Leicester SKYLARK Experiments
SKYLARK | Experiment | Stabilisation | Year |
SL 37 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1961 |
SL 40 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1961 |
SL 42 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1961 |
SL 45 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1962 |
SL 46 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1963 |
SL 47 | X-ray Telescope | Unstabilised | 1964 |
SL 83 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1961 |
SL 84 | X-ray Spectrometer | Unstabilised | 1963 |
SL 85 | X-ray Spectrometer | Unstabilised | 1963 |
SL 103 | X-ray Spectrometer | Unstabilised | 1963 |
SL 104 | X-ray Spectrometer | Unstabilised | 1963 |
SL 105 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1965 |
SL 106 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1965 |
SL 114 | X-ray Spectrometer | Unstabilised | 1962 |
SL 115 | X-ray Spectrometer | Unstabilised | 1963 |
SL 118 | First X-ray Sky Survey | Unstabilised | 1967 |
SL 119 | First X-ray Sky Survey | Unstabilised | 1967 |
SL 126 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1963 |
SL 127 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1963 |
SL 128 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1964 |
SL 129 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1964 |
SL 132 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1964 |
SL 133 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1964 |
SL 138 | X-ray Camera | Unstabilised | 1964 |
SL 301 | X-ray Spectograph | Sun Pointing | 1964 |
SL 302 | X-ray Spectograph | Sun Pointing | 1964 |
SL 303 | X-ray Spectograph | Sun Pointing | 1965 |
SL 304 | X-ray Bragg Crystal Spectrometer | Sun Pointing | 1966 |
SL 305 | X-ray Bragg Crystal Spectrometer | Sun Pointing | 1967 |
SL 306 | X-ray Pinhole Camera | Sun Pointing | 1965 |
SL 307 | X-ray Pinhole Camera | Sun Pointing | 1966 |
SL 403 | Extra Galactic Survey of M87 | Moon Pointing | 1968 |
SL 404 | X-ray Pinhole Camera | Sun Pointing | 1969 |
SL 405 | X-ray Pinhole Camera | Sun Pointing | 1966 |
SL 406 | X-ray Pinhole Camera | Sun Pointing | 1966 |
SL 407 | X-ray Pinhole Camera | Sun Pointing | 1967 |
SL 408 | X-ray Pinhole Camera | Sun Pointing | 1968 |
SL 605 | Bragg Crystal Spectrometer | Sun Pointing | 1969 |
SL 723 | Large Area Sky Survey | Unstabilised | 1968 |
SL 724 | Large Area Sky Survey | Unstabilised | 1968 |
SL 802 | Modulation Collimator Detector | Sun Pointing | 1970 |
SL 804 | Bragg Crystal Spectrometer | Sun Pointing | 1970 |
SL 812 | Survey of Norma X-1 & Cen X-3 | Star Pointing | 1971 |
SL 901 | Bragg Crystal Spectrometer | Sun & Sco X-1 Pointing | 1970 |
SL 904 | Background Survey | Sun Pointing | 1970 |
SL 972 | Large Area Sky Survey | Spin Stabilised | 1970 |
SL 1002 | Lunar occultation of GX3+1 | Sun & Sco X-1 Pointing | 1971 |
SL 1010 | Low energy survey | Sun Pointing | 1973 |
SL 1011 | Modulation Collimator Cir X-1 & Cen X-3 | Star Pointing | 1973 |
SL 1101 | Bragg Crystal Spectrometer | Sun Pointing | 1971 |
SL 1105 | Low energy mapping of Vela | Magnetic & Moon Pointing | 1975 |
SL 1112 | Low energy interstellar gas abundance | Star pointing | 1975 |
SL 1202 | Lunar occultation of GX5-1 | Sun pointing | 1972 |
SL 1206 | Bragg Crystal Spectrometer | Sun pointing | 1973 |
SL 1304 | Lunar occultation of Crab Nebula | Sun pointing | 1974 |
SL 1306 | Very large area mapping of Cyg X-1 | Sun pointing | 1976 |
SL 1611 | Dust Halo 2-D imaging (cancelled) | Inertial Platform | 1978 |
ESA Payloads:
SKYLARK | Experiment | Stabilisation | Year |
S26 | X-ray Spectroscopy | Unstabilised | 1967 |
S41 | Bragg Crystal Spectrometer | Sun pointing | 1967 |
S55 | Bragg Crystal Spectrometer | Sun & Sco X-1 pointing | 1971 |
S69 | Bragg Crystal Spectrometer | Sun pointing | 1970 |
S89 | Bragg Crystal Spectrometer | Sun pointing | 1972 |
NASA Payloads
SKYLARK | Experiment | Stabilisation | Year |
Astrobee-F | Imaging X-ray Telescope (Cygnus Loop) | 3 axis stabilised | 1977 |
Astrobee-F | Imaging X-ray Telescope (Puppis A + Crab + IC433) | 3 axis stabilised | 1978 |
25.040 A’bee-F | Wide Field Ultrasoft X-ray Camera | 3 axis stabilised | 1981 |
21.069 BB Vc | Wide Field Ultrasoft X-ray Camera | 3 axis stabilised | 1982 |
21.070 BB Vc | Wide Field Ultrasoft X-ray Camera | 3 axis stabilised | 1985 |
36.162 BB IX | J-PEX High Resolution EUV Spectrometer | 3 axis stabilised | 2000 |
36.195 BB IX | J-PEX High Resolution EUV Spectrometer | 3 axis stabilised | 2001 |
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