As he stood before the House of Commons last week, Defense Minister Harold Watkinson wore the pained expression of a man treading on nettles. "In the light of our military advice," intoned Watkinson, "we have concluded . . . that we ought not to continue to develop, as a military weapon, a missile that can be launched only from a fixed site." After six years of work and an expenditure of $280 million, Britain was scrapping its most ambitious military rocket, the 2,500-mile Blue Streak IRBM. The big rocket might be salvaged as a satellite launcher in the space...
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