Terry Ransome came to our Supper Meeting on Monday 9th February to talk about “Filton in Space”.
Terry had worked in the aerospace industry for over 30 years before his retirement and gave us an interesting talk about the development of space exploration, particularly where it was connected to Bristol (if we’re allowed to call Filton Bristol!).
He started telling us how impacted he was by the moon landings as a young person and how that had sparked his interest in space.
Terry described in detail the various satellites that were made or part made by BAC (the British Aircraft Corporation). The first of these was the Skylark, but later ones had Shakespearean names, such as Prospero and Ariel as well as names chosen by a member of the public who’d won the chance to do this in a competition.
The satellites that Terry described were launched from different countries including Australia and the USA and used for a variety of purposes including communications and magnetospheric exploration. A later and perhaps well known one was the Hubble Telescope. The solar panels on the wings of the Hubble were made in Filton.
Terry finished his talk by letting us know that 66 spacecraft in total were made with Filton hardware and he encouraged us all to visit the Aerospace Museum at Filton to learn more.