The echelle diffraction grating can be used to provide high spectral resolution in compact instrumentation which is very suitable for space astronomy applications. Spectrographs in which the high dispersion of the echelle is crossed with that of a concave grating have been flown in ‘Skylark’ sounding rockets to record the solar spectrum in the wavelength range 1200 Å–2200 Å, and further instrumentation is in preparation for observation of stellar spectra. Efficiency measurements have been made on some echelle replicas used in the instruments, and are correlated with surface conditions on the reflecting facets of the rulings. Results are also presented to demonstrate a spectral resolving power of λ/Δλ ≈ 105 over the wavelength range.