
An Empire of Stars: Forgotten history of the the British Space Programme - mbrubeck
http://lapsedhistorian.com/an-empire-of-stars/
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dasmoth
This article implies that the codes for communicating with Prospero may still
be available:

    
    
           http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2034379/Quest-revive-space-relic-lost-1996--British-launched-satellite.html
    

Also, this blog post from 2012 says they haven't given up:

    
    
               https://web.archive.org/web/20121026003633/http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/prospero-satellite/2012/04/04/long-overdue-update/
    

I can't find anything more recent -- but doesn't seem entirely hopeless.

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chr15p
One of the major reasons for the cancellation of the space program was Britain
was at the same time developing Concorde (with the French). There was only
enough money for one of them and it was decided concorde was more likely to be
commercially successful.

Other people think concorde is an masterpice of engineering but I'd have
preferred the rockets.

On the other hand a lot of the research and technology went into the European
Space Agency so it wasn't a total waste.

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jgalt212
There's a whole chapter on the last gasps of the British Space Program in the
book, Backrook Boys

[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1331484.Backroom_Boys](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1331484.Backroom_Boys)

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erehweb
If you're interested in this topic, you may enjoy the alt-hist comic book
"Ministry of Space", set in a world where the UK space programme is much more
successful.

