Terry started by giving background to his career in the space industry. Indeed, he graduated in the same month that man first walked on the moon.

He then went on to give a history of the various satellite programmes entered by BAC. All this taking place in a lone building on Golf Course Lane. Insights were quite detailed and BAC would be contributing to only parts of programmes. Albeit sometimes being the primary lead.

However, the first rocket was built at Banwell, Skylark 1 and launched in 1956, prior to Sputnik 1 albeit it did not go into space. There is a memorial to be found in Banwell. 441 Skylarks of several types were launched, last being 2005.

Notable satellite programs have been Ariel and Prospero. Prospero being the first and last British build and launch using the Black Arrow rocket in 1971.

We then covered the subjects of communication satellites, Intelsat, Skynet, Hydrazine rocket propellant and electromagnetic clean rooms. The clean room was in a separate circular building behind the BAWA club.

Further subjects covered Hubble Telescope, where Filton produced the solar arrays and Photon Detector assembly. Giotto that encountered Halley’s comet in 1986. The comet can be seen in the weathervane of the Unitarian Chapel at Frenchay. Finally, Beagle 2 which can now be seen on Mars in photographs.

Filton closed on Dec 23^rd, 1997, with operations moving to Stevenage. All is not lost for Bristol, recently ESA are looking into a spacecraft to Venus. This is based at the Science Park on the Ring Road.

The audience asked the common question on space debris. Terry responded wryly to say it is a worry particularly in recent years. A warm round of applause finished the evening.