Zircon (satellite): Difference between revisions

{{Mergeto|Zircon affair|date=April 2010}}▼

During the [[Cold War]], Britain's [[GCHQ]] was heavily reliant on America's [[National Security Agency]] (NSA) for communications interception from space. Concern heightened at the time of the [[Falklands War]]. GCHQ requested access to American [[Signals Intelligence]] satellites to assist in monitoring Argentine Communications, but reportedly struggled with the National Security Agency to gain appropriate tasking time, despite the [[special relationship]] between the two countries. The United States satellites were engaged in monitoring SIGINT traffic elsewhere in South America related to El Salvador.<ref>See Mark Urban (1997). [http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/alpha/zircon.htm UK Eyes Alpha: The Inside Story of British Intelligence (Chapter 5)]. Faber and Faber.</ref> GCHQ therefore decided to produce a UK-designed-and-built signals intelligence satellite, to be called Zircon, a code-name derived from [[Zircon|zirconium silicate]], a diamond substitute. Its function was to intercept radio and other signals from the [[USSR]], [[Europe]] and other areas. The Satellite was to be built at Marconi Space and Defence the Airport Portsmouth uk, at which a new high security building had been built and would have secured Jobs in the area. It was to be launched on a [[NASA]] [[Space Shuttle]] under the guise of [[Skynet (satellite)|Skynet IV]]. Launch on the Shuttle would have entitled a British National to fly as a [[Mission Specialist]] and a group of military pilots were presented to the press as candidates for '[[British astronauts|Britain's first man in space]]'.▼

Zircon was cancelled by Chancellor [[Nigel Lawson]] on grounds of its cost in 1987. However, [[Duncan Campbell (investigative journalist)|Duncan Campbell]], an investigative journalist working for ''[[New Statesman]]'' magazine, planned to make a BBC television programme about the project, part of a six-part series called ''Secret Society''. Campbell's thesis was that the cost of the satellite had been hidden from the British parliament, in particular the Public Accounts Committee. ▼

As a result of TV interviews filmed with officials, particularly Sir Ronald Mason, the government's chief scientist, the government became aware that Campbell knew about the project. Shortly before the programme was due to be transmitted, in January 1987 the ''New Statesman'' published an account of Zircon. This triggered [[Special Branch]] police raids on the BBC offices in [[Glasgow]], the offices of the ''New Statesman'', and the homes of Campbell and his researchers, Jolyon Jenkins and Patrick Forbes. Master tapes were removed from the BBC, the government obtained an [[injunction]] preventing transmission of the programme, and the BBC postponed the transmission of the entire series. Four episodes were transmitted in April and May 1987, and the Zircon programme was transmitted separated in September 1988. The sixth episode, titled "Cabinet," was held back indefinitely, and eventually remade and broadcast by [[Channel 4]] in April 1991.▼