Rocketeers.co.uk - a British view of commercial spaceflight

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines! AEL refurbishes large static test stands at Westcott

(Source: Airborne Engineering)

This week Airborne Engineering Limited blazed a new trail in British rocketry by moving to facilities at the former Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott - the site where the rocket engines of the British Blue Streak rocket were tested in the 1960s. The move includes the refurbishing of two large static test stands, which are designed to accommodate rocket engines of several tonnes thrust. These test stands are being fully instrumented with state of the art test equipment used at Airborne Engineering's former test facility, and will help establish a new rocket manufacturing and test facility based in the UK. These facilities have been secured by arrangement with AMPAC-ISP who run the Westcott test site and also build and test their own successful range of rocket motors for satellite applications.

Airborne Engineering has several ongoing contracts for rocket development and testing, including two motors for Reaction Engines Limited, one developing a green, air breathing, hydrogen fuelled engine for a hypersonic passenger transport plane programme, the other an experimental engine contributing to the development of advanced air breathing SABRE engines for the SKYLON spaceplane. Both of these projects are funded by the European Space Agency. As well as developing its own rocket propulsion systems, Airborne Engineering also plays a key role in the development of the Canary sounding rocket which will test advanced nozzles this summer.

Airborne Engineering’s past experience includes the development of avionics and life support systems for many of the round-the-world balloon attempts, the Qinetiq-1 edge of space manned balloon attempt, and a prototype of the SpaceX manned space capsule. Airborne Engineering was also a partner in the STERN test rocket programme and was the developer of the innovative Gyroc hovering rocket platform.

For more details, contact:
James Macfarlane,
Airborne Engineering Limited
Westcott Venture Park
Westcott, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
HP18 0XB
England

Email: james@airborne-engineering.co.uk

Rocketeer comments: I've wondered aloud on a number of occasions where the "British XCOR" is. Looks like AEL is busy producing the answer ;-)

Huh. Just noticed that the Government department with responsibility for space technology and the main UK space advocacy organisation both have the same acronym. Yay for gratuitous and unnecessary confusion! For the sake of clarity, I'll use "DBIS" to refer to the Govt. department.

I've gotten really rather fed up with the current administration's habit of changing department names every five minutes. I'd only just about gotten used to "DIUS".

Still, could be worse, could be the Department of Energy and Airborne Fertiliser ;-p

...and don't get me started on the Ministry of "Justice".

Scaled has posted logs for test-firings of the SpaceShipTwo hybrid motors:

• Rocket Motor 2 Hot-Fire Test Summaries

Guinness is offering three once-in-a-lifetime prizes in celebration of 250 years in business, one of which is a suborbital flight on Virgin Galactic:-

• Guinness offers drinkers chance to win space flight -- Daily Telegraph

I'll be at the RAeS Conference on space tourism today. If I can get a decent 3G signal during the conference, I may be able to liveblog, we'll see...

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UPDATE: Many thanks to the Royal Aeronautical Society for staging an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable conference. Thanks also to those of you who came up to me at the conference and let me know that you read Rocketeers, it's much appreciated, and makes the effort feel worthwhile ;-)

A tip of the hat to Jeff Foust and Andy Janes -- it was great talking with you.

To those who asked whether I had anything to do with the BNSC's change of policy on microgravity science -- the answer is no, not as far as I know :-) No-one from BNSC has spoken to me about it.

If I'm wandering around with a cheesy grin, it's because I heard one or two very interesting things regarding UK NewSpace development during the day. Expect some press releases in the near future. Watch this space!

I didn't get the chance to blog during the day, but I took very rough notes on my netbook during most of the panel sessions, and I'll upload them once I've fixed the spelling and formatting. I don't really have time to write them up as a formal article, but hopefully they'll still be of interest.

In the meantime, here are some links to media coverage of the conference:

• UK yet to embrace space tourism -- BBC News
• Xcor's chief operating officer talks orbital trips to Hyperbola -- Hyperbola
• Private space explorer Richard Garriott talks to Hyperbola -- Hyperbola
• Sweden considers SpaceX Falcon 1 for its spaceport -- Hyperbola
• AUDIO: RAeS space tourism 2009 Xcor and Space Adventures Q&A -- Hyperbola
• AUDIO: RAeS space tourism 2009 Spaceports speak up -- Hyperbola
• AUDIO: RAeS space tourism 2009 Astrium and Galactic Q&A -- Hyperbola

Finally, thanks to a benefactor and Rocketeers reader who wishes to remain anonymous, for offering to pay my registration fees for the RAeS conference.

Below is footage of a Google Tech Talk given on 21st May 2009 by Derek Webber on the current status of space tourism markets and the prospects for hypersonic point-to-point travel.

Link via Doug Messier of Parabolic Arc.

Bio from SpaceWorks Engineering: Mr. Webber's career began as a launch vehicle and satellite engineer in what is now EADS/Astrium Space Systems. He worked on thermal control system design for a number of satellites, including the Skynet satellite, and on kinetic heating analyses for launch vehicles, including post-flight analyses of telemetry from the Europa vehicle firings from the Woomera range. He became Head of Procurement at Inmarsat, (responsible for contracting over a billion dollars worth of communications satellites, their launch vehicles and ground segment), and Managing Director of Tachyon Europe (providing satellite broadband and Internet access across the continent). Mr. Webber operated a consulting and training company based in San Diego with clients including Comsat Corporation and the then Hughes Space and Satellite Systems. Consulting assignments included PDR, CDR Design Review Board membership, international negotiation skills training, and systems engineering tasks.

Mr. Webber holds a B.Sc. Honors Degree in Physics and Mathematics from Newcastle University (UK), and postgraduate qualifications in Space Science (from University College London, UK) and Management (from the University of Westminster, UK). He is a Senior Member of AIAA and a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society. Mr. Webber has been a member of the Adjunct Faculty of the International Space University, and at the US International University in San Diego, where he provided courses on international management. Mr. Webber is an active member of the Reusable Launch Vehicles Working Group and the Launch Operations Support Working Group of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-AST COMSTAC Committee.

An example of the kind of support companies which are springing up in the UK in response to the development of commercial spaceflight: Saturn SMS provides safety consultancy and management training services.

The Managing Director, Andy Quinn, completed a Masters with City University, London on passenger safety with Virgin Galactic, and is currently working on a PhD, "‘Examining the Influence of Safety Management in the Personal Spaceflight Industry".

One of Quinn's papers is "Certification considerations for microgravity flights in the UK".

The June 2009 issue of NewSpace Digest is now online at Space.co.uk.

In the same update is an article by Stuart Eves, military business manager at SSTL, on the future of small satellites.