The out-of-print Ignition! - An Informal history of Liquid Rocket Propellants, an entertaining history of liquid rocket systems up to the late 1960's can be found online.

The author, John D. Clark, was in charge of liquid propulsion development at the Naval Air Rocket Test Station at Dover, N J. (later the Liquid Rocket Propulsion Laboratory).

John Hazlewood makes an interesting comment on what could-have-should-have been with the British space programme of the 1960s:-

"The basic Blue Streak vehicle would have been produced on the fifty a year number one assembly line that was set up to a Ministry of Supply requirement in the late fifties at Stevenage. It is an interesting thought that with the intended high energy upper stages the basic BSSLV RZ12 or RZ13 launch package would have had a bigger payload than Soyuz. Thus giving an annual capacity to place in a 300 n.mile parking orbit the equivalent of a ISS for launch costs of some £25m (1960£). That is based on G. K. Pardoe’s unit costs of £250,000 per SLV first stage plus similar sum for upper stages. The whole package cost but a fraction of what was spent on UK egg production subsidies for the same period! Remember going to work on a egg?"

A video report from Bloomberg highlights UK space science missions, including the Bruno rover, a prototype for a future autonomous Mars exploration vehicle:

• British Space Industry -- Sending Bruno to Mars

A major £25M upgrade to the MERLIN radio interferometer comes online, greatly increasing its sensitivity:-

• E-MERLIN array starts to work its magic -- Skymania.com

(Source: British Interplanetary Society)

Speaker: Victoria Hodges

Date: 30 May 2012
Start Time: 7 pm
End Time: 8:30 pm

Venue: 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ

The Gaia Spacecraft, due for launch in 2013 is a cornerstone ESA Astronomy mission designed to map 1 billion objects within our Galaxy. In this talk we will explore the objectives of this ground breaking mission including its background and how scientists hope to be able to make use of the data that Gaia will provide. Additionally we will discover the Spacecraft itself including the truly remarkable instrument which will make the mission possible and challenges that such a mission poses for Spacecraft design.

See BIS website for details and bookings

(Source: UK Space Agency)

The UK Space Agency has announced nine new funding awards totalling £2M for science associated with Mars exploration. The work will help scientists to understand the Martian environment and develop systems to search for signs of past and present life. Two of the awards will enable UK scientists to work with data from the NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), due to land on the Red Planet in August 2012.

Dr David Parker, Director of Technology, Science and Exploration at UKSA: "This initiative demonstrates the continuing strength and relevance of UK planetary science. The UK should be proud to have such a dynamic research community and we are delighted to support researchers at the forefront of exploring the Red Planet."

• New funding for martian science -- UK Space Agency

The Virgin Galactic Space Party organised by "lifestyle designer" Richard Nilsson will be held at the Villa Oxygene near Cannes, on 19th May, aimed at promoting the virtues of spaceflight to the glitterati of the Cannes Film Festival:-

• Virgin Space Tourism Agents to Throw Swanky Party for Cannes Film Festival Celebs -- Parabolic Arc

(Source: NextBigFuture)

Alison Gibbings and and Massimiliano Vasile of the University of Strathclyde, have designed a system for asteroid deflection involving the release of a large number (thousands) of small, smart spacecraft. These are then guided towards the asteroid and impact with it. No single impact is large enough to disrupt the asteroid, but the total effect is sufficient to produce the desired deflection in the asteroid's orbit. A 500-kilogram swarm of fingernail-sized spacecraft would deflect a fast-moving, 250-metre asteroid by nearly 35,000 kilometres provided the swarm hits eight years, or about three orbits, before an expected Earth impact.

• A Smart Cloud Approach to Asteroid Deflection (PDF)
• Asteroid Deflection Technologies -- University of Strathclyde
• Impact Experiments -- University of Strathclyde

The 'Smart Cloud' paper won the Space Generation Advisory Council's 2011 'Move an Asteroid' competition.

• SGAC Announces the Winner of the 2011 Move an Asteroid Competition -- SGAC

British teams continue to make progress on attempts on both two- and four-wheeled land speed records.

The main chassis frame for the Bloodhound SSC jet/rocket car is now under construction at Hampson Aerospace in Wigan:

• Hampsons progress on sill welding -- Bloodhound SSC

The Jet Reaction team aiming for the two-wheeled land speed record tested their propulsion unit, a modified helicopter turbine engine plus afterburner, in February. The tests were undertaken at the Westcott rocket development site, with the assistance of Airborne Engineering Ltd.

• Jet engine bike passes test-fire trial ahead of speed record bid -- Reuters Science