Black Arrow R4 launch vehicle, 1971.

Black Arrow R4 1972 (including 1st and 2nd stage ground handling trolleys), (minor assembling and pipework incomplete)

This is the final Black Arrow rocket to have been built. It was never launched as the programme had been cancelled with its intended satellite payload - Miranda - orbited instead by a United States Scout rocket in 1974. The Black Arrow programme launched four times, twice succesfully including that which orbited the Prospero satellite in 1971, making the UK the sixth nation to launch its own spacecraft. The Black Arrow programme had been initiated to test new satellite technologies in space itself rather than in the laboratory. This would support UK industry in bidding for satellite contracts to be launched by the intended Europa rocket of the European Launcher Development Organisation. The Black Arrow programme never received the level of funding required to ensure swift development. By the time it was launching successfully UK government priorities had shifted in favour of purchasing launches on other nations' rockets. The UK became the only country to have developed and then abandoned a successful satellite-launching rocket.