Group timeline: 1960s
1960 K Pounds appointed Asst. Lecturer (Jan). J Underwood Res. Demonstrator.
B Cooke research student.
DSIR grant for £13006 (July) for research on X-rays from Space.
Also funding from Royal Society received for solar physics research (Ariel 1).
T B Jones appointed Asst. Lecturer (October).
1961/2 Move from F-J to new Physics Building.
1961 Skylark rocket launch from Woomera guided weapons test range in S. Australia
(July) puts first Leicester-built instrument into space. Start of a research programme to
explore the link between X- ray emission from the Sun and radio propagation in
the upper atmosphere.
1962 Launch of first British satellite, Ariel 1, from Cape Canaveral (now
(26April) Kennedy Space Center) on NASA Delta rocket. Payload included
solar X-ray detectors developed in collaboration with 20th Century Electronics.
1962 Discovery by US team of first cosmic X-ray source, Scorpius X-1, heralding
the start of a new branch of astronomy in which Leicester was to become a
leading international research group
1962 Solar X-ray detectors on Ariel 1 killed as a result of radiation damage
(June) caused by USAF nuclear test in the atmosphere over the S. Pacific
(such tests were subsequently banned, though not just for that!).
1964 European Space Research Organisation (forerunner of ESA) formed, with
ambitious programme of space science. UK initially the major contributor.
1967 Skylark rocket launch by Leicester scientists from Woomera carries out the
first search of the Southern skies for new cosmic X-ray sources.
1967 ESRO-2, Europe’s first space science satellite, fails to reach orbit as US Scout
rocket malfunctions in launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California
1967 NASA successfully launch OSO-4, an advanced mission to study the Sun, with
equipment from Leicester. The launch begins an unbroken period
during which at least one instruments developed at the University is
operating in orbit.
1968 Re-launch of ESRO-2, with Leicester solar X-ray equipment on board,
reaches Earth orbit to begin a successful 2-year study of solar activity and its effects on the Earth.
1969 NASA launch OSO-5, a further science mission to study the Sun. On board
is an X-ray telescope from Leicester which, for the next 6 years, provides
the scientific community with daily images of solar activity. This research
was a fore-runner of ’solar weather forecasting’, now a major international
research effort.
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