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
Explore Share

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
Explore Share

Long March 7A
Success
1 day, 7 hours ago
Yaogan 46
201 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

Classified Earth observation satellite officially reported as for "national resources/hydrology/meteorology surveying & disaster management" purposes.


LVM-3 (GSLV Mk III)
Success
1 day, 23 hours ago
CMS-03 (GSAT-7R)
Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad - Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India

Communications Satellite for the Indian Navy, replacing GSAT-7 for secure real-time links between Indian warships, submarines, aircraft, and shore-ba…


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 6 hours ago
Bandwagon 4 (Dedicated Mid-Inclination Rideshare)
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Dedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 15 hours ago
Starlink Group 11-23
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 28 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Long March 2
Success
3 days, 19 hours ago
Shenzhou 21
Launch Area 4 (SLS-1 / 921) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Tenth crewed flight to the Chinese space station.