Woomera Rocket Park photos

[den]

Woomera looks like the military plonked a heap of .mil-designed offices and accommodation in the middle of nowhere. Which is exactly what happened. And it has all the appeal of an army camp.

Right in the middle of town is the rocket park, where a heap of surplus planes, bombs and research rockets are mounted for display. All these things were used during the 60s and 70s, mostly by the RAF and RAAF, but there are some RN (Sea Slug ship to air) and RAN (Ikarus ship to ship) missiles.



Canberra Bomber converted to carry instrument packages that measured fallout from atomic tests. Other planes used here were dismantled and buried.


WRESAT. All that is left of the Australian space program. So much for being the fourth nation to launch a satellite.


The RAAF Jindavik was used to carry targets and instrument packages. The Black Arrow went to 66km, and the sounding rocket went up really fast, then down really fast



The second stage of this Black Arrow was mounted upside down and fired after the first stage dropped away at 60km. It tested ballistic re-entry temperatures. The Blue Streak was designed to be carried under RAF Vulcan Bombers

Comments

Re: WRESAT

[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

Sorry, mate. It's a sad situation. :(

I remember there was talk a few years back of building a space center down there, but never heard anything more about it. :(

I even remember doing some web searches on it, back when I first started laying out the ideas for the Kenedy Spaceport in South Texas. But, I couldn't find much of anything about it.

I imagine by 2066 Australia should have a good space port.

Since you know the territory, should it be at Cape York, Woomera or Sydney?

Scott

Re: WRESAT

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Not Sydney. It's too populated. I'd suggest Cairns at Cape York. It's 16deg S of the equator. Miami is 26deg N, so Cairns is actually a better launch site. Woomera would be more suited to secret launches due to its remoteness, but a bad place for a space port due to its remoteness. Cairns has a sea port, major airport, and is a decent sized city of about 60,000 people.

Woomera isn't.