 By 1953 Quatermass is the head of the British Experimental Rocket Group , which has a programme to launch a manned rocket into space from a base in <unk> , Australia . Although Quatermass succeeds in launching a three @-@ man crew , the rocket vastly overshoots its projected orbit and returns to Earth much later than planned , crash @-@ landing in London . Only one of the crew , Victor Carroon , remains , and he has been taken over by an alien presence , eventually forcing Quatermass to destroy him and the other two crewmembers who have been absorbed into him in a climax set in Westminster Abbey . 
