Abstract
“For decades, mankind has dreamt of space travel and the final frontier, and from today the UK will trigger the next scientific and innovation revolution to turn science fiction into science fact. Not only are we celebrating the launch of the first UK Government-backed astronaut, but our first ever space policy will build on the inspiration he provides to grow our burgeoning space industry and bring space back down to Earth. Historically we haven’t been a major player in space programmes; this policy will change that because, in the words of my hero Mr. Spock, to do anything else would be highly illogical.”
UK Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, Sajid Javid,
December 2015, less than one week before Peake’s launch.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
The new test range was approved on June 2, 1955, by the Chief of Staff of the Soviet Ministry of Defense. This date became the official “birthday” of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
- 2.
When a Proton rocket crashed in 2007, the launch site was shut down for two months while the Russians demanded compensation from the Kazakhstan government (which paid the Russians $61 million). Since then, the usage of the site – which is valued at $3.4 billion – has been subject to dozens of interim agreements, ranging from the launch of ICBMs to the use of dormant infrastructure. In 2015, with the Russians having decided to move their launch operations to an alternative – and less troublesome – site, the Kazakhs started looking for other customers, including ESA and Israel.
- 3.
Although Mission Control was unable to explain why the KURS had aborted the approach, an explanation was forthcoming thanks to a reporter working for Novosti Kosmonavtiki magazine. Apparently, the cause of the abort was a malfunction of the DPO-B No. 20 attitude control thruster, which is used to make very precise attitude adjustments to the vehicle. Scrutiny of the video and audio feed revealed an alarm had sounded in the Soyuz cockpit, followed by an audible warning that a failure of the K1B manifold had been detected. Normally, such a failure – later diagnosed as a failed pressure chamber sensor – would prompt a switch to a backup circuit, but this didn’t happen. Given that the incident echoed what had happened during the near catastrophic collision between a Progress cargo vehicle and the Mir station in 1997, the malfunction generated much discussion.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Seedhouse, E. (2017). It was a beautiful launch. In: TIM PEAKE and BRITAIN'S ROAD TO SPACE. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57907-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57907-8_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57906-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57907-8
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)