Black Arrow

In-active

Royal Aircraft Establishment ()

June 27, 1969

Description

Black Arrow was a British satellite carrier rocket. Developed during the 1960s, it was used for four launches between 1969 and 1971. Its final flight was the first and only successful orbital launch to be conducted by the United Kingdom, and placed the Prospero satellite into low Earth orbit.

Specifications
  • Stages
    3
  • Length
    13.0 m
  • Diameter
    2.0 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    2.0 m
  • Launch Mass
    18.0 T
  • Thrust
    256.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Black Arrow
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Black Arrow
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
    135.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Royal Aircraft Establishment

Government
None
1904

The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.

Black Arrow | Prospero

Royal Aircraft Establishment | United Kingdom
RAAF Woomera Range Complex
Oct. 28, 1971, 4:09 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

British scientific satellite used to demonstrate technologies needed for communication satellites.

Low Earth Orbit
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Black Arrow | X-2

Royal Aircraft Establishment | United Kingdom
RAAF Woomera Range Complex
Sept. 2, 1970, 12:34 a.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

Uninstrumented spherical satellite meant to enable atmospheric density measurements by observing its orbital decay. It was destroyed in the failure of the first Black Arrow orbital launch failure.

Low Earth Orbit
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Falcon 9
Success
1 day, 10 hours ago
NROL-105
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Twelfth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office …


Ceres-2
Failure
1 day, 11 hours ago
Demo Flight
Launch Area 95A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

First test launch of Galactic Energy’s Ceres-2 rocket.


Long March 3B/E
Failure
1 day, 22 hours ago
Shijian 32
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Chinese experimental spacecraft of unknown purposes.


Ceres-1S
Success
2 days, 19 hours ago
Tianqi 37-40
Rizhao offshore launch location - Haiyang Oriental Spaceport

4 small satellites for LEO Internet of Things (IoT) communication purposes.


Long March 2C
Success
3 days, 11 hours ago
AlSat 3A
Launch Area 94 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Earth observation satellite built by China's CAST for the Algerian Space Agency.