OHM Cape York Space Port

[OrbitHangar]

Author: rossco

Cape York Space Port

Cape York Space Port was a space base that was a possible candidate for development in the late 80s and 90s. It went through many iterations but in the end, nothing came of it. It was situated in north easter australia and offered both polar and equatorial launches, close to the equator.

Soviet zenit launchers were to form the base of its operations, and later incarnations saw japanese interest. Given what is now happening in Guyana this idea was probably ahead of its time.

Included are scenarios for DG as well as a Zenit (requires Velcro rockets).

Cheers
Rossco


DOWNLOAD

 

[Graham2001]

Screenshot looks good, Might see about putting some of Mustards & No-Matters Souyz rockets on those pads...

 

[Notebook]

Nice one rossco, bit of a walk from the runway to the Customs Hall though?
I hadn't thought of using other default meshes(pads and such), only the usual BLOCKS and TANKS etc. Have to try those next time.

Something else in the mists of time...

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k207/Notebook_04/Blue Streak/File0002-1.jpg

N.

 

[Graham2001]

Nice one rossco, bit of a walk from the runway to the Customs Hall though?
I hadn't thought of using other default meshes(pads and such), only the usual BLOCKS and TANKS etc. Have to try those next time.

Something else in the mists of time...

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k207/Notebook_04/Blue Streak/File0002-1.jpg

N.

I never knew they planned to build a launch silo there, be careful though the rocket may fall through the Earth if you try to launch from inside.

 

[Notebook]

Yes, part of the Blue Streak project, even had a kitchen sink.
http://www.spaceuk.org/bstreak/bs/k11.html

It was the telemetry station I was referencing really, amazing what goes on when some money gets spent. Quite busy around that area:

http://www.spaceuk.org/bstreak/eldo/darwin.html

Could have gone over the Cape York site...

N.

 

[Hielor]

I never knew they planned to build a launch silo there, be careful though the rocket may fall through the Earth if you try to launch from inside.

Um..........what?

 

[Rossco]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

WOAH - never knew about a site 6C silo at woomera. 6A and 6B were the over the cliff ELDO launch sites. B was never completed but was fairly advanced, A was finished and used quite a few times for ELDO and the british orbital shots. 6C i will have to research. Im wondering if the picture is actually 6B to the SE of 6A.

That said, apparently someone found a silo excavation at Spadeadam that noone in the govt knew about that was from the blue streak program as well, so they could have been lining up a test silo launch in woomera. Would make sense.

Someone has already done a brilliant 6A for orbiter so i wont be intruding in that area but other areas of woomera i might have a hack at, along with xmas island.

There was a tracking site for the polar orbital shots (there were a handful from woomera) but that was west of darwin, here 12°22'35.88"S/136°49'20.39"E and 12°22'27.78"S/136°48'54.87"E (area), but now appears to be handed over as maybe aboriginal housing or just abandoned, i cant tell from satellite.

 

[Graham2001]

Um..........what?

When I was testing a model Atlas silo I found if you try to launch from inside the silo without bringing the rocket to the surface you find the rocket floating in deep space.

 

[Hielor]

When I was testing a model Atlas silo I found if you try to launch from inside the silo without bringing the rocket to the surface you find the rocket floating in deep space.

Ah, yes, Orbiter doesn't like having things underground. You'd have to do some fancy tricks with the touchdown points in order to simulate it.

 

[Notebook]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

WOAH - never knew about a site 6C silo at woomera. 6A and 6B were the over the cliff ELDO launch sites. B was never completed but was fairly advanced, A was finished and used quite a few times for ELDO and the british orbital shots. 6C i will have to research. Im wondering if the picture is actually 6B to the SE of 6A.

That said, apparently someone found a silo excavation at Spadeadam that noone in the govt knew about that was from the blue streak program as well, so they could have been lining up a test silo launch in woomera. Would make sense.

Someone has already done a brilliant 6A for orbiter so i wont be intruding in that area but other areas of woomera i might have a hack at, along with xmas island.

There was a tracking site for the polar orbital shots (there were a handful from woomera) but that was west of darwin, here 12°22'35.88"S/136°49'20.39"E and 12°22'27.78"S/136°48'54.87"E (area), but now appears to be handed over as maybe aboriginal housing or just abandoned, i cant tell from satellite.

Some info here about the Spadeadam test silo:

http://www.spaceuk.org/journal/prospero3.pdf

I've spent a little time looking for the 6C site, can't see anything obvious on Google Earth. After 50 years, there may not be much left to see.

N.

 

[Rossco]

Notebook....

I think the following is the Woomera 6C silo!

31° 4'58.31"S

136°26'37.19"E

If you compare to the picture at :

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k207/Notebook_04/Blue Streak/File0002-1.jpg

this seems to line up. The google earth image shows the round hole (rotate GE so that up in the image is actually NW and it makes more sense). The north east side of the hole may have been filled in with spoil from some later dozing or dumping from when 6A and 6B were chopped up. But the circular hole looks about right. In the picture there are two hillocks visible at plateau level, and you can see the bunker which may be one immediately to the NW. Not sure on the other hillock (the right hand one in the picture) , it may be at 31° 4'54.65"S 136°26'34.62"E.

This also makes sense as the site as 6A, 6B and 6C then all progress W to E across the N side of lake hart. In addition, the silo would still be close to the control infrastructure and also lox plant and what not.

Apparenly it was not a real silo as the one to be built at spadeadam was, but rather a vertical silo launch testbed, with no support equipment in the hole but rather only nearby. It was also built into the gully wall to save excavation costs.

The photo i think was taken from near to :

31° 5'0.56"S 136°26'41.68"E where there is an access track.

There also are old access roads to the silo area top and bottom visible, but a think a lot of run off and dumping has choked up the gully since.

The dozing area at 31° 4'59.23"S 136°26'36.52"E also appears to be in the photo at the left side at the top of the silo.

This all fits i think. Like to hear what others think.

---------- Post added at 10:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:35 PM ----------

Ive marked up the suspect Woomera 6C silo site image from google earth as described in previous post. Here they are, raw and interpreted

Raw:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ac92cqiJaFnhZGZ3c2twNWZfMmhuZjk1d2dz&hl=en

Interpreted:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ac92cqiJaFnhZGZ3c2twNWZfMGRkczM4emhj&hl=en

enjoy

 

[garyw]

Ah, yes, Orbiter doesn't like having things underground. You'd have to do some fancy tricks with the touchdown points in order to simulate it.

Or with the scenery which is the trick that the phoenix addon does. Looks quite cool when this ICBM type rocket blasts out of it's silo.