When Moonraker came to be used as the title for the eleventh James Bond film, released in 1979, elements of the novel's plot were jettisoned in favor of a theme which better took advantage of the Space Craze of the late 1970s.
Unlike the film adaptation, the novel's plot revolves around Cold War nuclear weaponary. In the novel Drax began construction of the "Moonraker", Britain's first nuclear missile project, intended to defend the United Kingdom against its Cold War enemies (c.f. the real Blue Streak missile). The Moonraker rocket was to be an upgraded V-2 rocket using liquid hydrogen and fluorine as propellants; to withstand the ultra-high combustion temperatures of its engine, it used columbite, in which Drax had a monopoly. Because the rocket's engine could withstand higher heat, the Moonraker was able to use more powerful fuels, greatly expanding its effective range. In reality, however, Drax is a Nazi survivor and built the weapon to exact revenge on Britain.
As 1950s era nuclear missile technology was no longer relevant, the plot of the film was updated to focus on the new US space shuttle program, thus rewriting the story. Since NASA's Space Shuttle program had not been launched, Derek Meddings and his miniatures team had to create the rocket launch footage without any reference. Shuttle models attached to bottle rockets and signal flares were used for takeoff, and the smoke trail was created with salt that fell from the models. The space scenes were done by rewinding the camera after an element was shot, enabling other elements to be superimposed in the film stock, with the space battle needing up to forty rewinds to incorporate everything.