Telegram from the Universe

[tamaranth]

I started reading Francis Spufford's Backroom Boys -- the chapter about the UK postwar missile programme -- the other night, but put it aside because my cold was settling in and I couldn't concentrate.

However, the Universe thinks I should persevere, and to that end has arranged for British Archaeology to run a feature on the Cold War rocket silos at Spadeadam in Cumbria -- home of the Blue Streak missile.

Comments

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

Backroom Boys is about far more than just the missile programme - it covers various interesting bits and pieces of British science and technology too -- DNA and the Human Genome Project, mobile phones, computer games (specifically Elite), and ends up talking about Beagle...

The best book about British rocketry is A Vertical Empire (http://www.spaceuk.org/book.htm) which shows how tantalisingly close the UK was to having a successful space programme. Much of interest about Spadeadam in there.