Question Woomera 6A launch site.

[Notebook]

Could be, though it is small, (about 8m by 5m) to hold two control rooms?

While I was looking at this:
http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k207/Notebook_04/?action=view&current=img047.jpg&newest=1
to see if that object was marked, I noticed that "Lox tanker area" is shown. Sort of makes the lox pipe-line more ambigous. Tanker and pipe-lines, talk about hedging your bets!

N.

 

[tblaxland]

I noticed that "Lox tanker area" is shown. Sort of makes the lox pipe-line more ambigous. Tanker and pipe-lines, talk about hedging your bets!

Ambiguous how? The pipeline was definitely there, as was the LOX plant (I have great faith in the Sydney Morning Herald ). I'm not sure why they also had a tanker area, though. Maybe as a backup in case the LOX plant was down.

 

[Notebook]

Not ambiguous, poor choice of words, I mean er..
Maybe they had the tanker to pump out from the lox dump tank and return it to the start tank?
They had a dump tank at Spadeadam, but I can't find one at Woomera.

N.

---------- Post added at 11:46 ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 ----------

Not relevant to this, but there is an intersting pattern at:
-30.931606° 136.545554°
On the Woomera range airfield. Image artifacts?

N.

 

[tblaxland]

Not relevant to this, but there is an intersting pattern at:
-30.931606° 136.545554°
On the Woomera range airfield. Image artifacts?

Interesting, it doesn't seem to be near the edge of an image tile.

Maybe it is something to do with this ? http://www.unexplainedaustralia.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.136

Rumor exists that a 35 story building has been constructed underground the Woomera base. And that the United States now uses the Area to test Experimental Aircraft reverse engineered from crashed Alien spacecraft as Area 51 in Nevada has gained too much attention from UFO researchers and enthusiasts.

 

[Notebook]

I can see how the underground building rumour started, work was done for the Blue Streak launch silo at Woomera. It was only going to be 6 levels, not 35, but thats what rumours do!

Its a peculiar pattern, looks like a mip-map. Who knows?

N.

p.s. The secret underground bunker entrance is here:
-30.942662° 136.521321°

 

[Lunar_Lander]

Oh man, when will they ever stop to see Area 5x in any rocket base? I'm waiting for the day that they will rant about UFOs on the KSC.

Anyhow, it is great fun to go into the history of this project and to do all this reverse engineering from the books and from the aerial photos of today. And you, Notebook, are doing a great job of putting it into Orbiter ! I will also start my paper Blue Streak today, maybe we can compare afterwards whose BS is better !

 

[Notebook]

I'm sure your model will be good, I was only into plastick and balsa models! Probably kept KielKraaft and Airfix companies in business during the 50's and 60's.

Speaking of Airfix, they have re-released one of their classics
http://www.airfix.com/space

Might get mt Xacto set out again...

N.

 

[tblaxland]

maybe we can compare afterwards whose BS is better !

Be careful, there are some definitions of the acronym "BS" that are not so flattering. I wouldn't go around proclaiming that I have the best BS

 

[8ball]

If you would like to see what this site looked like in 1996, find the Australian science fiction movie Zone 39. Woomera Site 6A is used in the film and there are several good long and close up shots.

From looking at the helicopter flyby of 6A, it appears most of the causeway structure was demolished as some point in the past, although the main launch pad is still intact. They added one building for the movie, and a small satellite dish.

 

[Notebook]

Thanks 8ball, didn't know about that, £9 on Amazon, its region 1 only, but I know a man who knows a man...

There is a 13min film about F1 and its launch here:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1951to1964/filmpage_rocket.htm
Unfortunately, you can't spool through it, and the 6A content starts well in. Its interesting enough as a contemporaray record I think.

I made a rather tasteless short version here...

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k207/Notebook_04/?action=view&current=BlueStreak1.flv

N.

Edit: some modern photos in #34 here:
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=73823&page=2

 

[Rossco]

To the above posters looking for the control bunker for 6A. Not sure where it is but the bunker complex to the south east on the cliff edge past 6B may have something to do with Lake Hart (the salt pan to the south) being used as a bombing range (you can see craters to the south west). I THINK they also did some SAM tests over it, but not sure. Ive see footage of blood hound launnches but i thought they were up near the range airfield.

 

[Notebook]

Hi Rossco, this short about Blue Streak F1 launch has some info on buildings at Woomera. Not much I'm afraid:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1951to1964/filmpage_rocket.htm
It runs about 14 minutes, and the Woomera part is in the last half. Unfortunately, you can't scroll throught it!

One qoute from the voice-over is

The technicians move away to a safe place, 4000 feet away

I would guess that would have been the launch control.

Here's a Google Earth image of 6A/6B area with a 3000' scale
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k207/Notebook_04/Blue%20Streak/woomera1.jpg

Not a bad match for the bunkerbeing at the bottom of frame.

Here's a larger scale:
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k207/Notebook_04/Blue Streak/woomera2.jpg

Dosen't sem to be much else that fits.

the v/o also mentions

Instrumentation Building, 10 miles away

That puts it at the Woomera 5 site, the main range.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k207/Notebook_04/Blue Streak/img039.jpg

N.