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<<<previous
Secret
plans for the Brancaster spaceport
The plans
show the flight paths rockets would have taken |
Of course
the Brancaster spaceport never happened.
Each rocket
would have most likely shed at least two stages during their
ascent. As
oil rigs slowly spread across the North Sea it was considered
a very small, but still unacceptable risk to launch rockets
overhead.
Files now
in the public record office throw light on this:
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"...discussions
have been held with the Ministry of Power, and a chart
obtained showing the position of existing and proposed
oil rigs. Although it would be possible to show statistically
that the chances of hitting an oil rig would be acceptably
low, it seems probable that political considerations would
inhibit the establishment of a launch site in Norfolk."
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Hopes for
a "spaceplane"
One last plan
was considered, even more ambitious than the others. Military objectives
often drive technological development, and Brancaster was also proposed
as the home for a spaceplane that could spy on the Russians.
Satellites
were still a dream and any kind of surveillance still relied
on actual photographic processes that had to be retrieved and
developed.
the
spaceplane dream>>>
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