TV Alert - British Space Programme

[major_clanger]

Channel 5, tonight 7.30-8pm: 'Brits Who Made the Modern World: Rockets'

A short history of the British Space Programme, which as many of you know is quite a pet interest of mine.

EDIT: Well, that was short but sweet.

Hits: personal anecdotes from the people involved, footage I'd never seen before of the Black Arrow R0 launch failure, enthusiastic Peter Snow narration.

Misses: at only half an hour less commercial break it completely neglected the Blue Streak / Europa programme. Yes, the UK did manage to have two parallel space programmes, one indigenous and the other European, but it's a bit misleading to present Black Arrow as existing in isolation. Also, whoever did the CGI for the launch animations should have talked to someone more familiar with Black Arrow - the payload shroud was jettisoned early in second stage flight, not after orbit insertion. (It was bolted to the second stage, so it would have been a bit awkward any other way.)

Comments

[ms-cataclysm.livejournal.com]

my dad worked on a project called blue streak on guidance systems for rockets -wonder if it was the same one?