A Grounding in Space: Were the 1970s a Period of Transition in Britain’s Exploration of Outer Space?

Abstract

The 1970s have been routinely touted as representing an end of the United Kingdom’s space program. With its abandonment of satellite launch vehicle development, the downgrading of its main sounding rocket activities and the siphoning of funds away from national satellite projects toward the European, the decade is often interpreted as one of decline for the UK in outer space, as in other arenas. Was any such trend echoing a deeper cultural withdrawal from outer space affairs? How indeed had the culture of space manifested itself in the UK during previous decades and did the 1970s represent any sort of change? Were those players actively involved in space exploration – governmental, military, academic and industrial – exploiting a broader societal consensus towards outer space or were the two largely separate? Was a utopian dimension invoked by advocates of space exploration? By addressing such questions for the years leading up to and including the early 1970s, this chapter seeks to shed light on what, if anything, constituted a particularly British astroculture during the decades either side of the launch of the Space Age in 1957.