Skylark (rocket)

Skylark was a British family of sounding rockets, operational from 1957 to 2005. The programme began in the early 1950s at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, which offered the Royal Society a rocket for upper atmosphere research, and the first launch took place at Woomera in Australia on 13 February 1957. Skylarks were built in Britain and shipped to Australia for final assembly, testing and firing, and they were later flown from sites in Europe and South America too. The basic rocket was 7.6 metres long and 0.44 metres across, driven by solid fuel, and boosters allowed heavier payloads and greater heights. Skylark carried hundreds of scientific experiments, including some of the first good X-ray images of the solar corona. The British government ended its support in 1977 and responsibility for the programme passed to British Aerospace, which later sold it on. The 441st and final launch flew from Esrange, Sweden, on 2 May 2005.