Launch News Hebrides rocket launch.

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-35482244

Scotland has scored another first in space.

A rocket from the Hebrides missile range in the Western Isles has become the first vehicle to be launched into space from UK soil.

But the achievement almost went unnoticed.

It happened in October during an international military exercise in the Atlantic.

The aim of At Sea Demonstration 15 was to test the ability of warships to defend themselves against incoming missiles.

One of the those incoming target missiles was an American Terrier-Orion two-stage rocket which was launched from the Hebrides missile range in the Western Isles.

 

[boogabooga]

Wait, they never test launched any Thor from UK soil in the 50s-60s?

Never a space launch in the UK before AT ALL? :shrug:

 

[Pipcard]

Wait, they never test launched any Thor from UK soil in the 50s-60s?

Never a space launch in the UK before AT ALL? :shrug:

I think they did their space launches from Australia.

 

[Notebook]

Luckily for us, Thor was never fired from the UK(as far as I know). USSR would have took a dim view of test firings.
Woomera was the launch site of choice, but there was a plan? for a UK launch sit:
http://www.spaceuk.org/bstreak/bs/cumbria.htm

N.

 

[boogabooga]

USSR would have took a dim view of test firings.

Russia could not have been pleased with the ABM test either...

 

[Notebook]

Not likely! But that's part of the usual NATO exercises and they probably knew about it and were observing anyway.
A Thor launch from the UK would have been very dangerous in the 60's the UUSR would have not known if that was a test or the real thing.
I don't know much about the Thor deployment in the UK, I believe they were a stop-gap till Polaris was ready?


N.

 

[RisingFury]

Claiming that a suborbital mission is a space launch is like swimming over the channel and then claiming you swum across the ocean. So very British :lol:

 

[Andy44]

Claiming that a suborbital mission is a space launch is like swimming over the channel and then claiming you swum across the ocean. So very British :lol:

That seems like a cheap swipe at the UK.

And for the record, suborbital space launches are still space launches. Alan Shepard was an astronaut before John Glenn.

 

[TachyonDriver]

I visited Spadeadam as a Cadet in the Air Training Corps, 35or so years ago! What a great day, we were allowed to clamber around one of the bofors anti aircraft guns set up to defend the dummy airfield they had/have up there. We managed to get the traverse to free up, not sure about elevation, I cannot recall. There was a USAF Phantom tear-arsing about the base at the time. I do recall a couple of 13/14 year old boys frantically trying to wind the traverse to track the Phantom : D The pilot gave us the honour of rocking his wings as he departed!

 

[Urwumpe]

Space starts in 100 km. Period.

(No, dear US citizens: 100 km. Not 85 km. And not 50 miles).