In the 18th Mitchell Memorial Lecture given to the Southampton Branch of the Society on 3rd February 1971, Val Cleaver discussed the outlook for astronautics after Apollo.

In the light of participation in the rapidly evolving programme since that date, I shall discuss, in this lecture, the history of the Apollo project, its relation to the evolving objectives of the NASA space programme as a whole, the origins of ideas which led to the post Apollo system, the history of negotiations between the Americans and Europe on European participation in the programme, the current studies, and factors underlying possible European involvement.

The first American satellite weighed 30 lb and was launched in 1958. Since then the Americans have launched several million pounds of payload into low earth orbit and, in the Apollo programme, individual payloads into low earth orbit have a weight of 300 000 lb. NASA astronauts have spent more than 6000 hrs in space, safely flying more than 100 million miles. Eighteen American astronauts have orbited the moon, eight have left their footprints on the lunar surface.