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Back when Britain thought it was still great
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: UKland
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Just got back from 4 days camping. A client of mine owns an enormous private lake near us and he lets us camp out on one of the islands, which has a nice man made beach, a beach hut, hot tub and other niceties. When the weather is nice it's like being somewhere super remote but only down the road. Evenings are beautiful, with lakeside wildlife chuntering along.
Anyway, so far so interesting. Along the entrance road to the lake he has this funny water tower.
which I asked him about. It turns out to be less a water tower, more the third stage of a Blue Streak rocket, which was the UK space programme back in the early 1960's. 3 were built and shipped to Australia where the project was cancelled. One was launched, which worked just fine but the other 2 were shipped home. One went to a museum in German and one sort of disappeared.
It may look like a water tower, but inside it still has it's rocket motor
Pretty awesome to see what was cutting edge tech in it's day, now just languishing.
As we (me and two friends) were looking at it yesterday afternoon, this flew right over our heads en route to an airshow (reference pic, not mine as my camera is too cruddy for plane pics)
Two icons of UK technology together at the same time.
Then we went back and relaxed and drank beer until it was time to come home.
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This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Maryland
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Sounds like you had an awesome weekend. Those pics are truly amazing!!
Thanks for sharing!!
Do you know what happened to the rest of the rocket?
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: UKland
Status:
Offline
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No. No one knows where stages 1 and 2 went. My client picked up the third stage for free when BAE Systems were going to throw it out.
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This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Northern Ireland
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Britain. We give it the best until we couldn't be bothered. Or, if you want that in an English accent, bovvered.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
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Wow that's really sweet. I can't believe you saw a Vulcan (there is only one still flying today). So cool!
On a more sad note, I wish that space programmes today were still going like they were in the '60s. Who knows where we would be now?
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
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We are broke anyway, in case you haven't noticed.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
Offline
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Yeah, but not Soviet-Union-broke.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status:
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Oooo, that is awesome! Cool find.
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"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
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Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Polwaristan
Status:
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Looks like a good place to build your first warp ship.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Hong Kong
Status:
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Originally Posted by Cold Warrior
Looks like a good place to build your first warp ship.
Exactly.
I hope they get it ready by the 4th April 2063.
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