I Just Take Pictures

PGM-17 Thor Rocket and Blue Streak Missile, a photo by Melodysparks (Chris Preedy) on Flickr.

On my recent visit to the National Space Centre in Leicester I took my lunch under the Rocket Tower exhibits of the PGM-17 Thor Rocket and Blue Streak Missile

The ground floor of the tower is the restaurant

Thor was the first operational ballistic missile of the U.S. Air Force (USAF). Named after the Norse god of thunder, it was deployed in the United Kingdom between 1959 and September 1963 as an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) with thermonuclear warheads. Thor was 65 feet (20 m) in height and 8 feet (2.4 m) in diameter. It was later augmented in the U.S. IRBM arsenal by the Jupiter.

Thor test launches were to be from LC-17 at Cape Canaveral Missile Annex. The development schedule was so compressed that plans for the Atlas bunker were used to allow the completion of the facility in time. Nevertheless pad LC-17B was just ready for the first test flight.

The first flight of the Thor IRBM was on January 25, 1957. The first airframe, number 101, was delivered in October of the previous year. The vehicle reached an apogee of 4 inches (100 mm) whereupon contamination destroyed a LOX supply valve causing the engine to lose thrust. The Thor slid backwards through the launch ring and exploded on contact with the thrust deflector. Serious pad damage occurred. This was refered to by Gene Krantz in is biography "Failure is not an option" as the 4 inch flight

The second Thor flight (102) lasted 35 seconds after an April 1957 launch. It was ended by a range safety officer who destroyed the missile after seeing faulty data on a readout which indicated that the missile was heading inland over Florida.

Thor vehicle 103 (May 1957) exploded on the pad during tanking due to a faulty main fuel valve resulting in tank over-pressurization leading to tank rupture.

Thor vehicle 104 (August 1957) broke up after 92 seconds due to a loss of guidance.

Thor vehicle 105 (20 September 1957), 21 months after the start of construction, flew 1,100 miles (1,800 km) downrange. Estimated range without the extra load of the R and D instrumentation was 1,500 miles (2,400 km).

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.