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.
Design and development
Design was by the
Rocket Propulsion Establishment (RPE) at Westcott and it was manufactured by
Bristol Aerojet, with four units for the Black Arrow program with their first flight 1969.[4][2] The casing was spherical and the propellant grain used an internal star profile to control the initial burn rate.