Moonraker And Orion

Ian Fleming and Poul Anderson present the Moonraker rocket and the Orion spaceship, respectively. Both are described in their launch shafts. Men work on the hull of the Orion from a movable and adjustable access frame which is supposed to be dismantled and removed before liftoff but will be blasted and vaporized when the ship is hijacked. Men work inside the Moonraker by crossing a movable gantry from the shaft wall and entering the rocket through small access doors. 

Before reading any Bond books, I had thought that the Moonraker was a moon rocket but I soon learned to differentiate spy fiction from sf. However, a scientist who briefs Bond says that the rocket fuel is mainly of interest to scientists as a way of escaping from Earth. Scientists would prefer to explore space than to destroy cities. I prefer novels of space exploration to military sf. Bond refers to the Moonraker scientists as involved not just with rocketry but specifically with astronautics. The new science was in the air - and ready to go beyond it.