Where is that moonlight trail that leads to your side?

I was playing around with Google Earth and for a bit of fun, I thought I would try and simulate the path of the rocket launch featured in Moonraker.

We know the launch time was 12:05pm but we can also pin the date down to 22 May 1953.  Bond historians John Griswold and Henry Chancellor both place the book in 1953 and the launch was in a week when Tuesday was "towards the end of May" (chapter 10).  As Monday 25th was a bank holiday in the UK in that year (and appears to be a normal working day in the book), the events must take place during the 3rd week of May 1954.

The arc appears really steep as the rocket flies 1,000 miles high (chapters 10, 12, 20, 24) but only travels 80 miles north east of the launch site near Kingsdown in Kent.

Apologies for the cryptic blog title, I guess the hardcore Bond fans will recognise the line from the Shirley Bassey song.