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JOHN ELLWOOD


of the Hubble Space Telescope,” he said. “We were responsible for 20 per cent of the telescope and it was incredible to work with NASA so closely – it was a very great challenge but one that I loved.” John then went on to be in charge


of ‘Cluster’ – a project in which four satellites would work in conjunction to measure the effect of the solar winds on our planet. this was to be his first – and only major - brush with failure during his career. After years of work, he watched the rocket on which the satellites were carried blow up 30 seconds after launch. Bits of the satellites rained down on the swamps around the launch pad in French Guiana. Some still sit in his study. “It’s a very emotional thing, a


launch,” he said. “So much work by so many people has gone towards it and you know the danger that something might go wrong. To see that work blow up was very, very hard for us all.” Four years later, in 2000, John was again in charge of Cluster 2, which was launched by a Russian Soyuz rocket. “Working with the


Russians was an amazing experience,” he said. “The rocket was essentially the same as the one which had carried Yuri Gagarin into space all those years ago and it was from the same launch pad. It looked like it hadn’t been painted since! The Russian scientists didn’t seem to retire as readily as we do in the west, so I was working with 80-year-old launch engineers who had put Gagarin into space, which was a great honour. “We had a lot of fun and launched the Cluster 2 Satellites safely, so I have some wonderful memories of that time. I once tried to explain cricket to my hosts through an interpreter at


an after dinner speech – goodness knows what the interpreter made of ‘leg before wicket!’”


.....you know the dangers that something might go


wrong. To see that work blow up was very, very hard for us all.”


John’s next challenge in the space arena was to be even more daunting: to follow a comet and put a craft on its surface. The Rosetta Project was launched in 2004 and has already recorded a number of firsts, including the first time a spaceship has used the Earth and Mars to provide the gravitational ‘slingshot’ to reach its target, and the first time a man-made device has been sent so far away from the Sun without an atomic energy source. “There have been so many engineering and science challenges


to overcome with Rosetta,” said John. “To provide the ship with power where it is now, near to Jupiter (which is five times the distance from the Earth as the Earth is from the Sun) we have had to design massive solar arrays to catch the sun’s rays. These produce about 400 watts of power, or the same as a few large light bulbs! We are also attempting to land a small spacecraft on the comet surface, which is an amazing design challenge as we do not really know what the surface is made of that we will be landing on!” John’s final project was to create a means to deliver supplies to the International Space Station: The ATV – or Automated Transfer Vehicle. The first “space Bus”, as it was dubbed, was officially named the ‘Jules verne’ after the visionary ScifI author. As part of the ATV’s launch, John was presented with a first edition of “From the Earth to the Moon” by the author’s great grandson, which then travelled to the space station on the atv’s inaugural flight. Now retired, John is


still working on Rosetta ahead of its rendezvous with a comet in November 2014. Despite off-world


BeLOW: CLusTeR ABOve : JOHn AT WORK


distractions, John is settling into his retirement in Dartmouth. “I’ve bought a Squib sailing boat and have been racing at The Regatta,” he said. “I’m involved at the Royal Dart Yacht Club and am now on the Dart Harbour Board. Both my wife and I are enjoying life immensely!”•


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