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Blue Streak |
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History The development of
the Blue Streak missile began as an attempt to develop a British nuclear
missile. In 1957 De Havilland began the design of the rocket, licensing the
tank construction from Convair Atlas rocket. Rolls Royce started to develop
an engine based on the North American S3 motor for the Thor rocket. But in the end Rolls Royce redesigned the
engine to save weight. The Blue Streak did
not use storable fuels, and that meant, that a refuelling would take about five
minutes. By striking first, the USSR might be able to eliminate the Blue
Streak launch sites. That was one of the reasons that Blue Streak newer went
into active service as a missile. In January 1960 when the first Blue Streak
was shipped to Woomera in Australia for test firing, the missile programme
was cancelled. In 1961 the took
initiative to develop Blue Streak in to an joint European launcher, and in
1962 ELDO (a predecessor for ESA) was formed. Blue Streak was tested as the
first stage of the Europa launcher. The first Blue Streak was testfired June
5, 1964. In
total ten Blue Streak were fired, of which seven were part of Europa-rockets
until 1971, when the Europa project was finally cancelled – see the history
of Ariane 1. Sources: www.spaceuk.org Books and articles: Peter Morton: Testing Blue Streak at Woomera
IPMS USA -
Blue Streak - Britains medium range ballistic missile |
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