A new reality
On July 11th, 2021, UK businessman Sir Richard Branson achieved a lifelong dream of reaching the edge of space via the rocket-powered plane ‘Unity’ in another key step toward commercially available space flights becoming a reality.
Taking place just over a week before the inaugural 1969 Apollo 11 mission, this historic flight should come as no surprise given the UK’s inherent fascination with space and its history of spearheading the technological advancements that make space travel possible.
Studying the stars
Records of written astronomy stretch back to 700 AD to the Venerable Bede of Jarrow monastery. To this day monuments such as Stonehenge, Newgrange near Dublin and the stone circles commonly found in Scotland each feature a level of precision in their astronomical alignments that still fascinate visitors to this day.
Jumping ahead to the 17th century, British astronomers such as Sir Christopher Wren and Bishop John Wilkins pioneered telescopic astronomy in Oxford. Advancements in astronomy continued to grow well into the 19th and 20th century with larger and more accurate telescopes and the creation of the first radio astronomy research station by the late Professor Bernard Lovell of Manchester University.
Did you know?
- “The Monument” found at Fish Street Hill London which was erected in the 1670s to commemorate London’s resurgence from the Great Fire of 1666, was originally intended to serve as a giant telescope.
- Despite the moniker ‘Dark Ages’ most monk-scholars at the time maintained a general familiarity with classical science.
Francis Thomas Bacon at his demonstration of the Hydrox fuel cell. 1959.
Apollo and beyond
Returning to Apollo 11 however, one key aspect of the launch still stumped American scientists, specifically, powering the lunar lander. The solution emerged from the fuel cell technology designed by English engineer Francis Thomas Bacon. Conducting his fuel cell experiments at the University of Cambridge, Bacon created the first six-cell fuel battery and after receiving great interest from the US provided the patent for Project Apollo. These fuel cells were considered so successful that since the 1960s, they have been used to power various satellites and space capsules!
After the return of the Apollo 11 lunar lander, American President Nixon said to Bacon; “Without you Tom, we wouldn’t have gotten to the moon” – the same statement stands for the now successful mission of Unity.
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