UK Space Industry History or Heritage – A Case-Study, Stevenage UK
- Paper number
IAC-08.E4.4.6
- Author
Mr. Alistair Scott, EADS Astrium Ltd., United Kingdom
- Year
2008
- Abstract
In the early 1950s, a number of aircraft companies had set up new design and manufacturing facilities in Stevenage, one of the first new towns built to house London’s expanding post-war population. The de Havilland company first conducted work on propellers and missile systems there and this was followed by development and assembly of Blue Streak, the UK’s intermediate range ballistic missile and later first stage of Europe’s 3-stage Europa satellite launch vehicle. The De Havilland name was subsumed in the aerospace mergers of the 1960s but as Hawker Siddeley Dynamics went on to design and manufacture some of the UK’s and Europe’s earliest satellites. By the early 70s Hawker Siddeley had become prime contractor for all of Europe’s communications satellites and the experience and expertise gained at the Stevenage facilities enabled subsequent development of the highly successful Eurostar spacecraft. Stevenage, once a small village on the Great North Road was by now becoming known as home of the UK space industry. Today, the Stevenage site boasts EADS Astrium’s largest UK facility and, while working on the huge communications satellites such as Inmarsat F4, the company has returned to an extensive involvement in scientific spacecraft. It now leads many of Europe’s current programmes including Aeolus, the wind sensing satellite, LISA Pathfinder, the Gravity Wave investigator and, following the invaluable experience on the Beagle 2 Mars lander programme, the ExoMars Rover vehicle. The author has worked in the UK aerospace and space industry for over forty years, many of them based at the Stevenage sites and remembers the last of the Blue Streak's stainless steel fuel tanks being made in the 3000 Shop at Hatfield in the late 60s.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.E4.4.6.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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