Reply to: UK back into space...

[zeitghost]

Thankfully when they get used they'll be a fair way away...

[PAH]

Mind you, their thermonuke only managed about 45kt... bit of a squib really.

And their space programme and nuclear weapons rockets are combined into one hell of a white-knuckle ride.

[zeitghost]

I always feel comforted that Gordon Brown gives £££ millions to India as charity to help the starving, on our behalf, using our tax money, even though India has a Space Programme, Nuclear Weapons and all our IT jobs.

Mind you, their thermonuke only managed about 45kt... bit of a squib really.

[zeitghost]

It's only fair...

[DimPrawn]

I always feel comforted that Gordon Brown gives £££ millions to India as charity to help the starving, on our behalf, using our tax money, even though India has a Space Programme, Nuclear Weapons and all our IT jobs.

[TheFaQQer]

It must be admitted that Black Arrow was astonishingly expensive.

Just imagine launching a satellite (73kg) for the princely sum of £9M...

Allowing for inflation, that's about £110M today...

According to current Government figures, it's actually about £8.5 million - see the economy is doing great! Nothing to see here, move along, please.

[PAH]

You can pull the piss out of the achievements of the engineers who worked on that project, but I doubt that any of us could equal them.

They must have been very disappointed to apply for a job at Rover, only to discover it had nothing to do with space exploration vehicles.

[zeitghost]

When you consider the billions spent on other launch systems, I think that £9M was cheap at twice the price.

You can pull the piss out of the achievements of the engineers who worked on that project, but I doubt that any of us could equal them.

Naturally enough, the bean counters killed it just as it was becoming useful.

It was ever thus.

Prospero is still in orbit.

[PAH]

It must be admitted that Black Arrow was astonishingly expensive.

Just imagine launching a satellite (73kg) for the princely sum of £9M...

Allowing for inflation, that's about £110M today...

It would have been cheaper to build a bloody great ladder and walk it into space. In quiet times they could hire it out to mountaineers as practice for Everest.

Better still, use Everest as the staging point for the ladder so the mountaineers can slide down it on the way home.

[Churchill]

Didn't Top Gear nearly launch a REliant Robin into space?

Bloody impressive it was too!

[BrilloPad]

Didn't Top Gear nearly launch a REliant Robin into space?

[zeitghost]

It must be admitted that Black Arrow was astonishingly expensive.

Just imagine launching a satellite (73kg) for the princely sum of £9M...

Allowing for inflation, that's about £110M today...

[PAH]

What do you expect?

Even Branson's been hoodwinked with a giant water rocket, based on one they built out of an old washing up bottle and a subscription to Playschool.

I remember getting one (water rocket) for christmas in the 70s. We used to send it flying over the house, until one day it disappeared. Either it was stuck on the roof, or some thieving scrote had it away before we could run round the back.

[Marina]

But the concept of the UK rejoining the space race has me ROTFLMFAO...

One successful satellite launch in 1971...

Yea, the last time the UK tried launching a rocket, the milk bottle fell over

IGMC ..

[Churchill]

Though it must be admitted that, in the Best British Tradition, it was powered by steam...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow

Capacity Payload to LEO 73 kg????

Wtf was that? Threaded's lunch?