Waxwing (rocket motor)

This article is about the rocket motor. For other uses, see Waxwing (disambiguation).

Black Arrow satellite deployment, with Waxwing upper stage.
Waxwing seen without its nozzle

Waxwing was a British solid rocket motor used for apogee kick as the 3rd (upper) stage of the Black Arrow satellite launch vehicles. It was also known as Black Arrow-3. Waxwing was used to successfully place the Prospero X-3 satellite into low Earth orbit on 28 October 1971, Britain's only satellite launched on an indigenously developed launch vehicle. Before being separated from the Black Arrow launch vehicle, it would be spun on a turntable using six radial 'Imp' solid rocket motors[1] to spin stabilise the satellite. This means that any discrepancy in thrust in any direction would be cancelled out. The Waxwing motor is now out of production.[2]

Another possible use of Waxwing was to increase the velocity of test re-entry vehicles on Black Knight during tests for the Blue Streak missile.[3] However, this is disputed by other sources.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Science Museum display was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Black Arrow-3". astronautix.com. Archived from the original on 28 December 2016.
  3. ^ "Waxwing rocket motor". Archived from the original on 8 May 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2008.