SpaceFlight A British Interplanetary Society publication Volume 61 No.9 September 2019 £5.25 Top gear! Made to measure: the BIS Moon suit The Brit who saved Apollo Khrushchev's super-booster Starship visionaries 09> 634089 770038 9 CONTENTS Features 12 Memories of Apollo A UK engineer joined the Apollo programme after being hired by Lockheed. Here, Tony Errington recounts his experiences and the day he saved Apollo 16 from a premature return to 4 Earth. Letter from the Editor 17 Webb’s Giant Nobody believed him at first – only the CIA knew Well that’s over for another 50 years but what will we be he was telling the truth. NASA Administrator celebrating, and from where, James Webb spoke of a giant Russian super- when Apollo 11 has its centenary: booster that epitomised their race to the Moon. Earth, Moon or Mars? Perhaps all Only years later did the story come out. three. The overwhelming enthusiasm 22 A long and winding road for this great event in July 1969 John Sealander recalls the day he stood on the was rekindled in scores of places 4 all across the UK, with the British site where Apollo 10 left Earth for the Moon and Interplanetary Society and its shares his thoughts as he went back to see the representatives supporting events flight of Falcon Heavy from an adjacent launch around the nation. The sense of pad fifty years later. coming together, sharing a great adventure and taking joy over a 40 Above and Beyond great endeavour that stands outside politics, strife and Stephen Ashworth takes us to the stars as he discontent was everywhere. I recounts proceedings at the Interstellar Studies couldn’t help but admire the way Workshop during late June. everyone bore that glowing sense of wonder, joy at a magnificent 12 achievement – it was as though it had happened yesterday. Regulars I could not help but reflect in my own mind how far we have come 2 Behind the news with the robotic exploration of Time to get moving – From Prague to the every planet in the solar system – Cornish Riviera – Into the wild and more worlds visited than we knew about when Armstrong and 4 Opinion Aldrin landed on the Moon. The achievement of Apollo was that 6 ISS Report because it went so far there was 9 June – 8 July 2019 no turning back from the wider 17 possibilities. And as we look 26 Correspondence toward new and exciting missions to come we will never forget what 30 Obituary began it all – still held dear in all John Healey (1922-2019), Jerrie Cobb (1931-2019) our hearts. 33 Multi-media The latest space-related books, games, videos 36 Satellite Digest 560 – June 2019 David Baker [email protected] 44 Society news / Diary 22 COVER: THE SPACE SUIT DESIGNED BY ROSS AND SMITH OF THE BRITISH INTERPLANETARY SOCIETY, NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE NATIONAL SPACE CENTRE, LEICESTER / NATIONAL SPACE CENTRE SPACE / NATIONAL CENTRE, LEICESTER SPACE THE NATIONAL AT ON DISPLAY NOW SOCIETY, INTERPLANETARY THE BRITISH OF AND SMITH ROSS DESIGNED BY SUIT THE SPACE COVER: What’s happened/ What’s coming up OUR MISSION STATEMENT Editor David Baker, PhD, BSc, FBIS, FRHS Sub Editor Ann Page Creative Consultant Andrée Wilson Design & Production MP3 Media Promotion Gillian Norman Advertising Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: [email protected] The British Interplanetary Society Distribution Warners Group Distribution, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, England Tel: +44 (0)1778 promotes the exploration and 391 000 Fax: +44 (0)1778 393 668 SpaceFlight, Arthur C. Clarke House, 27-29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ, use of space for the benefit England Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: [email protected] www.bis-space.com Published monthly by the British Interplanetary Society, SpaceFlight is a publication that promotes the mission of the British of humanity, connecting people Interplanetary Society. Opinions in signed articles are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of to create, educate and inspire, the Editor or the Council of the British Interplanetary Society. Registered Company No: 402498. Registered charity No: and advance knowledge in 250556. The British Interplanetary Society is a company limited by guarantee. Printed in England by Latimer Trend & Co. © 2019 British Interplanetary Society 2017 ISSN 0038-6340. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced all aspects of astronautics. or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission for the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by license only. SpaceFlight Vol 61 September 2019 1 SLUGBEHIND THE NEWS Time to go! Tim Peake is taking a two-year sabbatical from his astronaut duties. TIME TO GET MOVING Britain‘s only active astronaut, Tim Peake, will be returning from the European Space Agency (ESA) to the UK. BASED AT THE European Astronaut’s Centre (EAC) eligible for a second mission to the International in Cologne, Tim has been working as Astronaut Space Station (ISS) as a member of the ESA Operations Team Lead, plus carrying out the normal astronaut “class of 2009” – this follows his first UK and European-led outreach and training work space flight in 2015/16 when he undertook the responsibilities. Now he is coming back to the UK highly successful six-month Principia Mission on for two years, to undertake more education and board the ISS. outreach work as part of the UK Space Agency’s ESA are committed to continue to help maintain current programme. crew on the ISS until at least 2024. Italian astronaut ESA announced the move, saying that whilst he Luca Parmitano is due to take over as the ISS will be taking an unpaid leave of absence for two commander as part of his “Beyond” mission this years from 1 October 2019, this is not unusual as year. astronauts often use the period between space Whilst Tim Peake’s second mission prospects missions for “personal and career development”. obviously depend on continued UK government Tim is expected to continue in his role as a STEM financial support for ESA and human spaceflight Ambassador for the UK, in addition to his outreach aspects in particular, encouragingly in 2016 ESA work for the Prince’s Trust and as a Scout Director Jan Worner stated his intention that all Ambassador. astronauts in the class of 2009 will fly twice by The ESA statement notes that Tim remains 2024. SF Nick Spall 2 Vol 61 September 2019 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS With headquarters in Prague, the UK’s imminent exclusion from the Galileo satellite navigation system has given the UK Space Agency a wakeup call. IMAGES: ESA IMAGES: From Prague to the Cornish Riviera? THE UK IS TO SET UP a National Space up to £20 million to help Spaceport upgrades to the airport for supporting Council as part of a package of Cornwall and US launch operator Virgin Virgin Orbit’s converted Boeing 747 measures designed to reinforce the Orbit to develop facilities to enable the which will be used for the air-launch industry ahead of the country’s launch of small satellites – although the platform LauncherOne, a project to departure from the European Union investment remains subject to which Virgin Orbit will contribute £2.5 later this year. Under plans revealed in “business case approval processes”, million. An agreement was signed at July by the department for business, according to the government. Greg the July 2018 Farnborough Air Show the government also said it would make Clark, business secretary, said space is between officials from Cornwall and funding available towards a project that a “rapidly growing sector of our Virgin Orbit to study the possibility of could see Cornwall become the launch economy which plays a key role in our adapting existing facilities for site for a range of small satellites from modern Industrial Strategy, promotes LauncherOne and that has endorsed as early as the 2020s. The UK Space Global Britain and ensures our national initial expectations that the project is Agency will also work with the US to security”. valid, fundable and environmentally TIME TO GET MOVING enhance space weather forecasting. The investment aims to provide acceptable. SF David Baker The measures come at a critical time for Britain’s space sector, which has been buffeted by uncertainty over the impact of Brexit and the UK’s exclusion from the military aspects of Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation programme. The industry, which employs around 42,000 people, has repeatedly called for a sustained national space programme. The UK has set an ambitious target of cornering 10 per cent of the global space market by 2030 in a sector dominated by the US, Russia and China. The new council, which will be set up later this year, will co-ordinate all aspects of Britain’s space strategy. Colin Paynter, managing director of Airbus Defence and Space UK, said the commitment recognised the “importance of satellites and space applications to all areas of government”. ABOVE Separately, the UK Space Agency and Samsung S8 Smartphones capable of Cornwall Council plan to make available receiving Galileo sat-nav signals. SpaceFlight Vol 61 September 2019 3 BEHIND THE NEWS in Briefing Into the wild WHILE PRO-SPACE LOBBYISTS high-quality jobs” would be created applaud the selection of several by the venture, adding that “the sites in the UK for development of jobs which will be available to local horizontal launch sites such as that people have been stated as in Cornwall there is also support for housekeeping and security”.