Commonwealth Space Symposium

From The Space Library

The Commonwealth Space Symposium was hosted by the British Interplanetary Society at Church House in Westminster London from August 27-29th 1959. Over a three day period delegates presented papers outlining the various capabilities of Commonwealth countries in space science. The event was hosted by Leslie R. Shepherd of the BIS and the opening of events was by Sir Eric Harrison, Australian High Commissioner. 16 of the 19 papers were by U.K. authors, with the remaining contributions from Australia, Canada and India.

Thursday, August 27.

• Altitude Sounding by Solid Propellant Rockets and its Economics, W. T. Fisher (Bristol-Aerojet)
• Minimum Propulsion for Soft Moon Landing of Instruments, D. S. Carton (College of Aeronautics)
• Astronautics at Armstrong Whitworth, H. R. Watson (Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft)
• Instrumentation for Spaceflight, B. V.Soames-Charlton, L. Lax and P. Barrett (Pye)
• Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope as a Space Communicator, J. H. Thomson (University of Manchester)
• Britain's Place in Interplanetary Exploration, J. E. Allen (A. V. Roe)
• An Air-breathing Engine to Work at Mach Numbers Greater than Five, W. F. Hilton (Hawker Siddeley Aviation)

Friday, August 28.

• Cabin Conditioning Equipment for Manned Satellites, B. Beardshall and P. Fitt (Normalair)
• General Review of a British Spaceflight Project based on Blue Streak, G. K. C. Pardoe (de Havilland Propellers)
• Economics of Spaceflight, D. Wragge-Morley (Financial Times)
• Space Navigation, P. R. Wyke (A. V. Roe)
• Satellite Tracking by Optical Methods, A. P. Willmore (University College, London)
• Woomera as a Space-vehicle Tracking and Launching Station, H. J. Higgs (Ministry of Supply, Australia)
• Heating Problems of Entry into Planetary Atmosphere, D. J. Shapland (A. V. Roe)
• Commonwealth University Participation, T. R. F. Nonweiler (Queen's University, Belfast)

Saturday, August 29.

• Recovery of Earth Satellites, D. E. Bailey (A. V. Roe)
• Initial Programme for Commonwealth Spaceflight Project, S.K. Kumar and R. L. Macarthy (Indian Astronautical Society)
• Canadian Facilities, P.A. Lapp and A.E. Maine (read by E. Wall) (de Havilland Aircraft of Canada)
• Feasibility of Nuclear Fission Rockets, O. H. Wyatt (Hawker Siddeley Nuclear Power)