: ‘Philip Ellaby Cleator (1908–1994, born in Wallasey, England, U.K.) founded the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) in 1933.’ National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. ‘As a young office worker in the Liverpool area, Cleator was inspired by science fiction movies and news of the rocket societies, especially the American Interplanetary Society. He founded the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) in 1933. In 1936 he published the first book in Britain on the topic, Rockets Through Space: The Dawn of Interplanetary Travel. The BIS became the world’s most important space advocacy society from the mid-1930s on.’ https://pioneersofflight.si.edu/content/philip-ellaby-cleator-0

image from https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-union-jack-on-the-moon-1262867212 '...the booster consisted of 2,490 [powder] rockets, which were shed as soon as they were exhausted. Thus, a kind of 'infinite' staging was used to compensate for the very low specific impulse of the motors. The hexagonal booster was 6 meters in diameter & 32 meters long, with a lift-off mass of 1112 metric tons. Launch was from a flooded caisson in a high-altitude lake near the equator. The one metric ton spacecraft delivered a crew of three to the lunar surface... Following re-entry in the earth's atmosphere, a parachute was used for final descent. Oddly, heating during ascent through the atmosphere was seen as a real problem, while re-entry on return was considered trivial... Therefore, a jettisonable ceramic shield protected the spacecraft from heating...during ascent, while no heat shield was considered necessary for return.' http://www.astronautix.com/b/bislunarlander.html

#OTD-Oct 13-in 1933
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#BritishInterplanetarySociety (#BIS) founded thru the efforts of #PhilipEllabyCleator (1908-1994) Liverpool, his enthusiasm fired by science fiction & news of such rocket societies as the #AmericanInterplanetarySociety & the #VereinfürRaumschiffahrt.
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