 Britain has proposed a suborbital launch vehicle, a space station and a moon mission, and nothing has made out of it. What next? Logically, actual rocket hardware, of course. Just like the Americans did with their Thor Able rocket, which utilised a Thor Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile for a first stage, and the Soviets with their R7 and Cosmos families, not only the United Kingdom, but Europe was going to develop their own launch vehicle based off their own homegrown IRBM. Welcome to part two of It's Not Rocket Science, the British space programme. Following World War Two for Britain and the Allies, another step on the warfare tech tree had been unlocked – nuclear weapons. To keep up the World War-winning streak, the UK needed their own nuclear strike force in case another war started 20 years after World War Two ended, just like with the first. The British government feared losing the UK's great power status. Of course, in hindsight, nuclear warfare only ended up being a threat of the Cold War, but in 1952, hindsight didn't exist yet. So on the 3rd of October, Britain became the world's third nuclear superpower with the destination of Operation Hurricane. Britain has their nuclear bomb, and we know that it worked. But how will it be delivered relatively quickly? Spoiler alert, we're not at the rockets yet, but we're probably the most iconic British aircraft fleet of all. A feat of three brand new modern aircraft types, the Vickers of Alliance, the Avro Vulcan and the Handily Page of Victor, which ended service with the Royal Air Force in 1955, 56 and 57 respectively. These beautiful aircraft were used multiple times throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s seeing service during the Suez Crisis and the Falklands War, but never for a nuclear mission. It was also realised that planes, although they may be fast, just weren't fast enough. Just like with the Americans and the Soviets, a missile would be required as an adequate nuclear deterrent for the United Kingdom, and the answer was Blue Streak. Standing at 24 metres tall, this intermediate-range ballistic missile was the answer to Britain's needs. It was powered by two Rolls-Royce RZ-2 engines, which mixed liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel just like SpaceX's Falcon 9, but this was a bit of an issue. As you may know, Falcon 9 is fuelled right up until launch as the very cold Keralocks likes to evaporate. Well, the same was the case with Blue Streak, and it couldn't be left in the sun with a full tank of cryogenic propellants sitting inside. When its use was required, it'd have to firstly be filled up with propellant and oxidiser, a process which would take four and a half minutes before it could be launched. Four and a half minutes was simply too slow, even if it could beat the plane. This issue was rectified, however, as the manufacturer of Blue Streak to Haverland invented a standby mode for the IRBM. This feature would allow Blue Streak to be held at a T-minus 30 seconds position for up to 10 hours. With multiple missiles, Britain's deterrent was sorted. Until it was cancelled in 1960. It was too expensive and too vulnerable, and this man, Admiral of the Fleet, Louis-Francis Albert-Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, first Admiral of Burma, had also been arguing for a long time that the Navy should be armed with nuclear weapons instead. I wonder what that is. Depending on how you look at the story, this is either the sad end of Blue Streak or the exciting start of a new chapter, because the British didn't stop there. Blue Streak was about to be assigned a role far more exciting than the IRBM, and that's the first stage of the UK's first almost-class launch vehicle. Desmond King Healy and Dorin Gilmore of the Royal Aircraft Establishment put forward a proposal in 1957 to develop a three-stage launch vehicle comprised of stages that the military already had access to. The first stage would be Blue Streak, the second stage would be Black Knight, a research ballistic missile, and a solid third stage. It also attracted the IRBM's project manager, Dr Geoffrey Pardo. Just like with the original purpose of Blue Streak, developing what became known as Black Prince any further would cost a lot of money. Money, which the sole nation of the UK probably wouldn't be willing to spend, so collaboration was found to be the route forward, and a new name, Europa. Because it sounds like Europe. And Europa's in space. Just like a certain aircraft being developed in the 60s, Britain partnered with France, who became the leading nations in the European Launcher Development Organisation, or ELDO. Joining later on would be Italy, Belgium, West Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia. Yes, Australia isn't in Europe, but they did provide a large uninhabited region for launching to the east from, which is something Europe definitely doesn't have. If Australia is allowed to compete in Eurovision, then I'm sure it's OK for them to be in ELDO. Just like how Desmond and Dorin's original idea was an amalgamation of British equipment, Europa's design was an amalgamation of European assets. It, of course, used the blue streak for the first stage, with France providing the second. This was named Coralie, which was powered by four Vexin A liquid engines, which used nitrogen, tetroxide, and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine fuel. Germany provided the third stage, which they called Astris, which is Latin for the stars. This stage housed just one engine, also called Astris, which was filled with nitrogen, tetroxide, and aerozine 50, which is an even 50-50 mix of hydrogen and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine. Originally designed for use in the Titan II. Over the Europa programme, blue streak by itself had been tested five times, with two tests of the Coralie second stage, but the full Europa I rocket wouldn't be launched until 30 November 1968 at the Wumerah site in Australia. The rocketry capabilities of Britain, France and Germany would all be combined to create the first orbital launch of Europa. And unsurprisingly for a test launch, it was a failure. So they tried again in 1969, and it failed. And they tried again in 1970, and it failed. 1971 though would see the next generation, Europa II, featuring a brand new solid rocket fourth stage and a brand new launch site, one that is still in use today, Kuru, French Guiana. The maiden flight of Europa II would also turn out to be a failure, however. Two more generations had been envisioned, Europa III and Europa IV, but they never made it to launch. The 5th of November 1971 would be the last time that the Europa programme would fly. But just like with blue streak, it wasn't all Obama. Europe may have just cancelled their launch vehicle, but something bigger and better came out of Europa, the European Space Agency. Crew flights, an ISS module, a Ryan service module, and much more came because of Europa, even if it could barely get off the ground itself, physically. ESA would later go on in 1975 to create the Ariane family of rockets, starting with this, the Ariane 1. It has a strong resemblance to Europa, keeping the lineage going, although Ariane 1 has some major updates over its unsuccessful predecessor. The blue streak first stage on Europa used an RP1 liquid oxygen mix whilst Ariane 1's first stage instead opted for a nitrogen tetroxide, unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine fuel, just like Europa's second stage. Ariane 1's first stage also had four new engines, named Viking 5. These allowed the stage to achieve a maximum thrust over 1,000 kN higher than blue streak, which is quite the upgrade. The Ariane 1, and in turn the Europa lineage, can easily be seen in the later Ariane 2, Ariane 3 and Ariane 4 vehicles. Even though the aesthetic and technological similarities died out with Ariane 4, the spirit of Europa still lives on within Ariane 5, and soon, Ariane 6. If we rewind a couple of years, though, back to 1969, alongside Europa, the most famous British rocket of them all first took to the skies. It's the one I'm often told I know nothing about in the comments. It's the only British rocket to ever make it to orbit. It's the Black Arrow. Only five were ever built, but it was enough to mark off the UK as one of the countries in the I Got a Satellite to Orbit Club. Launch one, though, was a failure. It was a suborbital test flight of only the first and second stages, but the thrust vectoring failed so it couldn't steer itself. Launch two, however, that marked the first success for Britain in the orbital launch journey. A successful suborbital test of the first and second stages with no thrust vectoring failures. The first orbital launch attempt was to follow with the satellite named Orber inside the payload fairing. And it was a failure. Starting to notice a pattern. Sadly, the Minister of State for Trade and Industry at the time, Frederick Corfield, did too, and he announced in the House of Commons that the plug had been pulled on the Black Arrow on the 29th of July, 1971. It was oddly convenient, however, that the final component of the rocket required for a fourth launch, the second stage, had arrived at Wumerra a whopping three days earlier. They practically had a rocket on the pad, so one final launch attempt was granted. With one last chance of success, launch four of the Black Arrow commenced at 0409 UTC on the 28th of October, 1971, and on the final ever attempt, Britain delivered Prospero to orbit. It's the most British government-y thing to happen, in my opinion. Cancel a program before it's successful. It ends up becoming successful, but you can't backtrack, so we lost that capability anyways. The British government at the time decided, unsurprisingly, that the economics of the Black Arrow didn't make sense. NASA had offered to launch their payloads for free on a scout rocket, so why keep splashing the cash on their own? It turned out, however, that as soon as the Black Arrow program had been cancelled, NASA swiftly backed down on this offer and there were no free launches to be had. Britain lost that battle chasing an offer, which turned out not to materialise. Within a year of the final flight of the Black Arrow, its launch facility at Wumerra was demolished and only dreams of what could have been remained today. As of writing this video, the United Kingdom is still the only country to develop an orbital vehicle, cancel the program and then get it to orbit anyways on their final attempt. Imagine if SpaceX's Falcon 1 program was pulled just before they flew Flight 4, their first successful launch as well. There'd be no Flight 5, no Falcon 9, no Starship. Just imagine what could have been if the Black Arrow wasn't pulled. You may recall, though, that I said earlier that five Black Arrows were built, but only four were launched. Due to the cancellation of the Black Arrow program, the final one to be built, serial number R4, is now on display at the Science Museum in London, which you can go and see today for yourself. Unlike Europa, Wumerra was the only launch site ever used for the Black Arrow, but it wasn't the only one proposed. Two domestic sites were also considered one of them being the Island Group of Eust. They're part of the Outer Hebrides, just off the western coast of mainland Scotland. This site was rejected, however, because it was too remote, but I don't quite understand that, considering that the other option was the middle of the desert on the other side of the planet in Australia. The long side of the big coastal to home was also considered in Wumerra County, and it does actually kind of make sense, as apart from the city of Norwich, it's basically a 5,300 square kilometre field with some rivers here and there. There is a limited range of poem-a-mort opportunities from Norfolk, but if you thread the needle, it is possible. I personally find it extremely annoying, knowing that you could have had a multiple-point facility on your doorstep, but with the budget cuts in the 70s, it never came to fruition. To be honest though, it probably wouldn't have anyways, because there are concerns that spent stages are full of oil rigs in the North Sea. Dropping spent stages on innocent people is something which is heavily frowned upon, and it is for the best that this doesn't happen. It's still a shame though, and it is a pity that no place in the UK has ever launched a rocket into orbit. Yet. Stay tuned for part three. Thanks to Paul and the rest of the team here at the National Space Centre in Leicester. If you're ever here, make sure to come down. They let me film inside of mock-up modules. They let me film rockets, astronauts. You can come see all of this stuff for yourself. I definitely recommend it. The final part of this series will see us entered on modern day with humans going to space, so I don't think you'd want to miss that. Hopefully I'll see you then. Thanks for watching, and goodbye.