Summary: The
actual vehicle worked well, reaching the highest altitude to date, but the
three university experiments returned no results, and so little is known
of this mission.
Preparation: Although
SL07 had been launched in April 1958, there were four more launched before
SL08 (SL05 in May, and SL22, SL18 and SL 09 in June), and so SL08 was in
fact the 11th Skylark to be launched.
Flight: The apogee of 157
km (98 miles) was the highest yet achieved.
Recovery: Parachute recovery had not been introduced, and
no information about the
impact point has been found.
Results:
Unfortunately no scientific measurements were obtained - the UCL and Imperial College neutral
atmosphere experiments (using grenades and window/chaff respectively) to
measure temperature and wind variation with altitude failed, and there was
no telemetry from Birmingham's attempt to measure electron concentration
in the ionosphere by dielectric means.
The lack of scientific results meant that this flight was not
reported in any scientific papers.
|
Seq. Nos |
Launch date |
Ref.
(sponsor)
launch site |
Configuration |
Apogee km
(miles) |
Experimenters |
Experiments |
Result |
|
11
(7) |
19 Sept.
1958 |
SL08
(UK)
Woomera |
Unstabilised,
Raven 2 |
157
(98) |
UCL
IC
Birmngham |
Neutral atmosphere (grenades)
Neutral atmosphere (window/chaff)
Ionosphere - electron concentration |
F
F
Sf |