Saturday 17 May 2008

All Systems Go!



During the tea/cigarette/ice lolly picture card collecting mania of the 60s, amongst many others were two sets of cards issued by Lyons Maid.
One was called 'All Systems Go', the other was called 'Space Age Britain'. You might also have heard of Wall's 'Moon Fleet' set.

All these sets of cards pictured optimistic, technology based promises of a future without drawbacks. They are quite charming. Just right for the Thunderbirds generation.

From time to time I'll put one up here with the text and you can see what you think.

By the way, the rocket pictured above is the British built Black Arrow. It was successfully launched several times from Australia from the mid sixties to the early seventies, placing our satellites into Earth orbit.

To date, Great Britain remains the only country ever to have developed a space launching capability - and then abandoned it.