<<<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: "...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." |
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>>> | 
