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Skylark was a willing work horse which perhaps never received the praise it was due. A sounding rocket it carried experiments into space starting with its first launch in 1957. In a career that lasted for 441 launches and forty eight years it finally retired bowing out with its last launch on the 2nd of May 2005. In the same way that navigators and explorers sounded the deep ocean Skylark took experiments up into space to explore this unexplored realm. The foundations of European Space Science owe much to Skylark. Many now prominent European Space Scientists began their careers and earned their doctorates based on experiments carried on Skylark.
Skylark began as a military project in 1955. A design was produced at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough to be a test vehicle. The Blue Streak missile design was intended to carry a nuclear weapon over 1,500 nautical miles but there was almost no knowledge of what exactly would happen when it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere. Two designs were proposed but it was the liquid fuelled rocket Black Knight that was chosen for the re-entry test programme. The solid fuelled rocket design later to be named Skylark was offered instead to academia to carry experiments. The Rocket motors were developed at Westcott initially the Rocket Propulsion Department of the RAE but later the Rocket Propulsion Establishment.
The Royal Society Gassiot committee had been prominent in arguing that the United Kingdom should become more involved in space research. This led to the development of Skylark which flew as part of the UK contribution to the International Geophysical year in 1957. This first launch took place from Woomera on the 13th of February. Skylark went through a series of improvements and there was a proposal for an orbital capable Skylark called Spacelark which was sadly rejected. However, by 1976 it could take 200kg of payload to an altitude of 575km or over 350 miles. Early versions used the ubiquitous British Army Bailey Bridge as part of its launch system.
http://icbh.ac.uk/icbh/witness/skylark/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4490253.stm
http://www.star.le.ac.uk/rockets/skylark.shtml
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESA_Publications/SEMQPTZ990E_0.html
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