Blue Streak ( missile ) Blue Streak was a British medium range ballistic missile ( MRBM ) , and later the first stage of the Europa satellite launch vehicle . Blue Streak was cancelled without entering full production . The project was intended to maintain an independent British nuclear deterrent , replacing the V bomber fleet which would become obsolete by 1965 . The operational requirement for the missile was issued in 1955 and the design was complete by 1957 . However , during development it became clear that the missile system was too expensive and too vulnerable to a pre - emptive strike . The missile project was cancelled in 1960 , with US - led Skybolt the preferred replacement . Partly to avoid political embarrassment from the cancellation , the UK Government proposed that the rocket be used as the first stage of a civilian satellite launcher called Black Prince . However , the cost was thought to be too great for the UK alone , and international collaboration was sought . This led to the formation of the European Launcher Development Organisation ( ELDO ) , with Blue Streak used as the first stage of a carrier rocket named Europa . Europa was tested at Woomera test range , Australia , and later at Kourou in French Guiana . Following launch failures , the ELDO project was cancelled in 1972 and development of Blue Streak was halted . Background . Post - war Britain ' s nuclear weapon s armament was initially based on free - fall bombs delivered by the V bomber force . It soon became clear that if Britain wanted to have a credible threat , a ballistic missile was essential . There was a political need for an independent deterrent , so that Britain could remain a major world power . Britain was unable to purchase American weapons wholesale due to the restrictions of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 . In April 1954 the Americans proposed a joint development programme for ballistic missiles . The United States would develop an intercontinental ballistic missile ( ICBM ) of range , while the United Kingdom with United States support would develop a medium - range ballistic missile ( MRBM ) of range . The proposal was accepted as part of the Wilson - Sandys Agreement of August 1954 , which provided for collaboration , exchange of information , and mutual planning of development programmes . The decision to develop was influenced by what could be learnt about missile design and development in the US . Initial requirements for the booster were made by the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough with input on the rocket engine design from the Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott . British Operational Requirement 1139 demanded a rocket of at least 1500 n . m . and the initially proposed rocket would have just reached that threshold . Development . De Havilland won the contract to build the missile , which was to be powered by an uprated liquid - fuelled Rocketdyne S3D engine , developed by Rolls - Royce , called RZ2 . Two variants of this engine were developed : the first provided a static thrust of and the second ( intended for the three stage satellite launch vehicle ) . The engines were unique at that time in that they could be vectored by seven degrees in flight and could therefore be used to guide the vehicle . This configuration , however , put considerable pressure on the autopilot which had to cope with the problem of a vehicle whose weight was diminishing rapidly and that was steered by large engines whose thrust remained more or less constant . The vibration was also a problem , particularly at engine cut - off , and the later development of the autopilot for the satellite launcher was , in itself , a considerable achievement . Subcontractors included the Sperry Gyroscope Company who produced the guidance system whilst the nuclear warhead was designed by the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston . The missiles used liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants . Whilst the vehicle could be left fully laden with over 20 tonnes of kerosene , the 60 tonnes of liquid oxygen had to be loaded immediately before launch or icing became a problem . Due to this , fuelling the rocket took 4 . 5 minutes , which would have made it useless as a rapid response to an attack . The missile was vulnerable to a pre - emptive strike , launched without warning or in the absence of any heightening of tension sufficient to warrant readying the missile . To negate this problem DeHavilland created a stand - by feature . A missile could be held at 30 seconds ' notice to launch for ten hours . As the missiles were to be deployed in pairs and it took ten hours for one missile to be prepared for stand - by , one of the two missiles could always be ready for rapid launch . To protect the missiles against a pre - emptive strike while being fuelled , the idea of siting the missiles in underground launchers was developed . These would have been designed to withstand a one megaton blast at a distance of half a mile ( 800 m ) and were a British innovation , subsequently exported to the United States . However , finding sites for these silos proved extremely difficult and RAF Spadeadam in Cumberland ( now Cumbria ) was the only site where construction was undertaken although test borings were undertaken at a number of other locations . This was also the site where the RZ2 rocket engines and also the complete Blue Streak missile were tested . The best sites for silo construction were the more stable rock strata in parts of southern and north east England and eastern Scotland , but the construction of many underground silos in the countryside carried enormous economic , social , and political cost . Development of the underground launchers presented a major technical challenge . 1 / 60th and 1 / 6th scale models base on a ‘ U ’ shaped design were constructed and tested at RPE Westcott . Three alternative designs were drawn up with one chosen as the prototype , designated K11 . RAF Upavon would appear to have been the preferred location for the prototype operational launcher with the former RNAS at Crail as the likely first operational site . As no site in Britain provided enough space for test flights , a test site was established at Woomera , South Australia . Cancellation as a military project . Doubts arose as the cost escalated from the first tentative figure of £50m submitted to the Treasury in early 1955 , to £300m in late 1959 . Its detractors in the civil service claimed that the programme was crawling along when compared with the speed of development in the US and the Soviet Union . Estimates within the Civil Service for completion of the project ranged from a total spend of £550 million to £1 . 3 billion , as different ministers were set on either abandoning or continuing the project . Whitehall opposition to the project grew , and it was eventually cancelled in 1960 on the ostensible grounds that it would be too vulnerable to a first - strike attack . Admiral of the Fleet Lord Mountbatten had spent considerable effort arguing that the project should be cancelled at once in favour of his Navy being armed with nuclear weapons , capable of pre - emptive strike . Some considered the cancellation of Blue Streak to be not only a blow to British military - industrial efforts , but also to Commonwealth ally Australia , which had its own vested interest in the project . The British military transferred its hopes for a strategic nuclear delivery system to the Anglo - American Skybolt missile , before the project ' s cancellation by the USA as its ICBM program reached maturity . The British instead purchased the Polaris system from the Americans , carried in British - built submarine s . Civilian programmes - Black Prince and ELDO . After the cancellation as a military project , there was reluctance to cancel the project because of the huge cost incurred . Blue Streak would have become the first stage of a projected all British satellite launcher known as " Black Prince " : the second stage was derived from the " Black Knight " test vehicle , and the orbital injection stage was a small hydrogen peroxide / kerosene motor . Black Prince proved too expensive for the UK , and the European Launcher Development Organisation ( ELDO ) was set up . This used Blue Streak as the first stage , with French and German second and third stages . The Blue Streak first stage was successfully tested three times at the Woomera test range in Australia as part of the ELDO programme . Black Prince . In 1959 , a year before the cancellation of the Blue Streak as a missile , the government requested that the RAE and Saunders - Roe design a carrier rocket based on Blue Streak and Black Knight . This design used Blue Streak as a first stage and a 54 inch ( 137 centimetre ) second stage based on the Black Knight . Several different third stages would be available , depending on the required payload and orbit . The cost of developing Black Prince was estimated to be £35 million . It was planned that Black Prince would be a Commonwealth project . However , since the government of John Diefenbaker in Canada was already spending more money than publicly acknowledged on Alouette and Australia was not interested in the project , these two countries were unwilling to contribute . South Africa was no longer a member of the Commonwealth . New Zealand was only likely to make " modest " contributions . European Launcher Development Organisation . Britain instead proposed a collaboration with other European countries to build a three - stage launcher capable of placing a one - ton payload into low Earth orbit . Consisting of Belgium , Britain , France , Germany , Italy and the Netherlands , with Australia as an associate member . Preliminary work began in 1962 and ELDO was formally signed into existence in 1964 . Britain with Blue Streak became the first stage of the European launch vehicle with France providing the Coralie second stage and Germany the third . Italy worked on the satellite project , the Netherlands and Belgium concentrated on tracking and telemetry systems and Australia supplied the launch site . The combined launcher was named Europa . After ten test launches , the Woomera launch site was not suitable for putting satellites into geosynchronous orbit , and in 1966 it was decided to move to the French site of Kourou in South America . F11 was fired from here in November 1971 , but the failure of the autopilot caused the vehicle to break up . The launch of F12 was postponed whilst a project review was carried out , which led to the decision to abandon the Europa design . ELDO was merged with the European Space Research Organisation to form the European Space Agency . Related projects . Aside from Black Prince , a range of other proposals was made between 1959 and 1972 for a carrier rocket based on Blue Streak , however , none of these were ever built in full and today only exist in design . De Havilland / British Interplanetary Society proposal . In 1959 de Havilland suggested solving the problem of the Blue Streak / Black Knight geometry by compressing the 10 by 1 metre ( 30 by 3 foot ) Black Knight into a sphere . Although this seemed logical , the development costs proved to be too high for the limited budget of the programme . Westland Helicopters Black Arrow . Following its merger with Saunders Roe , Westland Helicopters developed the three - stage Black Arrow satellite carrier rocket , derived from the Black Knight test vehicle . The first stage of Black Arrow was given the same diameter as the French Coralie ( the second stage of Europa ) in order to make it compatible with Blue Streak . Using Blue Streak as an additional stage would have increased Black Arrow ' s payload capacity . To maintain this compatibility , the first stage diameter was given in metres , although the rest of the rocket was defined in imperial units . Black Arrow carried out four test launches ( without an additional Blue Streak stage ) from Woomera between 1969 and 1971 , with the final launch carrying the satellite Prospero X - 3 into orbit . The United Kingdom remains the only country to have successfully developed and then abandoned a satellite launch capability . Hawker Siddeley Dynamics proposal . In 1972 , Hawker Siddeley Dynamics ( HSD ) produced a brochure for a design using Blue Streak as the first stage of a two - stage to orbit rocket , with an American Centaur upper stage . The Centaur second stage would have either been built in the UK under licence or imported directly from the USA . Both the Centaur and Blue Streak had proved to be very reliable up to this point , and since they were both already designed development costs would have been low . Furthermore , it had a payload of 870 – 920 kg to a geosynchronous orbit with , and 650 – 700 kg without the use of additional booster rockets . Blue Streak today . Following the cancellation of the Blue Streak project some of the remaining rockets were preserved at : A section of the propulsion bay , engines and equipment can be found at the Solway Aviation Museum , Carlisle Lake District Airport . Only a few miles from the Spadeadam testing site , the museum carries many exhibits , photographs and models of the Blue Streak programme , having inherited the original Spadeadam collection that used to be displayed on site . An RZ2 engine is on display at Armagh Planetarium , Northern Ireland and The Euro Space Center in Redu , Belgium . Footage from the Blue Streak launch was briefly incorporated into " The Prisoner " s final episode , " Fall Out " . A part of the Blue Streak rocket launched on 5 June 1964 from Woomera , Australia , found 50 km SE of Giles in 1980 is on display at Giles Weather Station . Another piece was located in 2006 , but its exact location has been kept secret by the finders . The titanium structure of a German third stage was , for some time , sited on the edge of a gravel pit in Gloucestershire . Images of the Blue Streak 1 are incorporated in the American film Contact .