50 years of space research (and beyond) at the University of Leicester

Ariane V, flight 504 lifts off with XMM-Newton, 10 December 1999.

Leicester has had a Physics Department since 1924, long before it gained University status. It was in 1957 - approriately enough, the year that Sputnik 1 was launched - that Leicester University College was granted the charter which transformed it into the University of Leicester. That same year, plans for a new Physics Building were approved.

Three years on, with the appointment of Ken Pounds as Assistant Lecturer in January 1960, the Space Research Group was founded. Thus began a history of space science at Leicester which has lasted half a century and can already be seen extending far into future.

Among the many researchers to have passed through the group is Jeff Hoffman who subsequently flew on five Shuttle missions and is now a Visiting Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

2010 marks the fiftieth anniversary of space science at the University of Leicester.

The past

A timeline of space research at Leicester
From the founding of the Department in 1960, through all the various NASA and ESA missions to which Leicester space scientists have contributed.

The present

Exploring the Extreme Universe
A three-day anniversary symposium in July 2010 for current and future staff and invited colleagues.

The future

ExoMars: from Leicester to the Red Planet
Leicester's extensive involvement with the international mission to Mars in 2018.