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BRITAIN'S FIRST SPACE ROCKET The story of the Skylark |
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A temperature profile for the upper atmosphere derived by combining US and Woomera results. (The White Sands results were from 1950-53, the Guam and Australian ones from 1958 during the IGY.) (Stroud (1975) figure 3) |
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Summary:
Although some scientific experiments had been flown on SL04 the previous
November, SL07 was Skylark's first flight for primarily scientific
purposes, and thus it initiated the Skylark operational programme. The
payload comprised three university experiments and one set of instruments
from the RAE. Preparation: As preparations for SL07 had proceeded without problem, and SL05 had been delayed, SL07 was launched before SL05, and so was the sixth Skylark to be launched. Flight: The apogee of 153 km (95 miles) was 20% more than SL04, resulting in SL07 becoming the second British rocket to reach space. Recovery: As yet, parachute recovery had not been introduced, and the neutral atmosphere observations were made from the ground, where the ground network had been upgraded with new pre-amplifiers using the latest invention - the transistor. Results:
The UCL and Imperial College neutral atmosphere
experiments (using grenades and window/chaff respectively) to measure
temperature and wind variation with altitude were successful, but
Birmingham's attempt to measure electron concentration in the ionosphere
only partially so - although full success would be achieved when repeated
on SL09 in June. |
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More: Brand, R. H. (2014), Britain's First Space Rocket, pp.111-114 & 612. |
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