BLACK ARROW

...is apparently always to be written in caps when referring to the only British rocket to have inserted a satellite into orbit.

Today what was left of it was on a trailer outside the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Space company Skyrora rescued this first stage of the rocket from the Anna Creek Cattle Station in Australia where it had landed after the launch from Woomera in October 1971 and where it had been lying ever since.

They shipped it back to Scotland and have put it on display. Today the Parliament was debating the work of Scotland’s companies in the space sector and this was a good, and fascinating, reminder of what is possible.

Britain is the only country in the world to have . as the Wikipedia entry puts it “ successfully developed and then abandoned a satellite launch capability”. Scotland has the potential to take up the mantle and re-enter the race.