At the height of the Cold War when paranoia about Russia's space program was ramping up, a 12-year-old Denis Cox fired off an "urgent" letter to "a top scientist" at the Woomera Rocket Range containing his designs for a world-beating rocket.

Now, 52 years later, Cox will finally get a response.

Cox as a boy.

A fellow space aficionado and blogger, Bob Meade, tracked him down after the letter was dredged up by the National Archives of Australia and published on its website as the "Find of the Month" in May.

The publicity caught the eye of David Kilmartin, editor of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation's Connections magazine.