Space Station Program

Selected Plates From:

Space Station Program

European Space Station Symposium

June 3 Thru 5, 1970

Space Divison

North American Rockwell

Space Station Concept

This chart depicts the 12-man Space Station as currently conceived out of the on-going Phase-B Space Station Program Definition activities. The concept shows four decks in the core module, two attached experiment modules, and a detached experiment module floating in the immediate proximity of the Station. The solar arrays represent just one possible means of generating the 25 kilowatts of power required by the Space Station. The core module is 33 feet in diameter and approximately 50 feet in length and is launched by the INT-21 launch vehicle (S-IC/S-II) from one of the Saturn-V launch pads already in existence at Kennedy Space Flight Center. The Space Station is designed to operate in a low earth orbit at an altitude of 200 to 300 nautical miles and a nominal inclination of 55 degrees. Current planning indicates that this Space Station could be launched late in Calendar Year 1977 and could operate for several years in the 1980’s.

Space Base Concept

This chart shows an artist’s concept of the 50-man Space Base. The crew modules used in the Space Base can be evolved from the 12-man Space Station module. The concept shows the two nuclear reactors which provide electrical of up to 100 kilowatts, joined to the zero-g hub. The Space Base, which operates in low earth orbit during the decade of the 1980’s, is a multipurpose research and development facility to which scientist and other users can be transported by the Shuttle and which will support these people they are undertaking their particular activities in orbit.

Planetary Space Vehicle Concept

The Phase-B Space Station Program Definition activities have also considered the evolution of the Space Station module into the manned planetary mission module. Shown here is an artist’s concept of the manned planetary vehicle as it leaves the earth on the transplanetary mission in the mid – to the late – 1980’s.

Nuclear propulsion using the Nerva-1 type engines provides the primary propulsion for this deep space mission. The primary mission under consideration is onward which will accomplish a Mars landing using the Mars orbital rendezvous technique and a swing by Venus on the return leg to earth. Depending on the mission opportunity, the total mission duration is between one and two years. The 12-man earth orbital has a large number of the features required by a planetary mission module; and is desirable, where possible, to shape the Space Station program in such a way that it represents the maximum step along the road to this mission of the future, while at the same time it does not compromise the Station for its primary earth-orbit mission objectives.

Space Shuttle

During the late 50’s and the decade of the 60’s, the limitations of technology required that the transport of man and other payloads to earth orbit be accomplished by a multistage expendable launch vehicle. as the level of activities in earth orbit increases and as the number of crew and amount of cargo requirements to be transported to earth-orbit increases, the desire for a much lower cost and more convenient means of transporting personnel and material to orbit is obviously required. The two-stage, all-reusable shuttle depicted here is one means of accomplishing this. Whereas the development of a system like this type requires the dedication of considerable resources over several years, the tremendous increase in convenience and economy represents the essential breakthrough necessary for a viable space program.

Space Station Internal Configuration

Deck 1

A greater detailed look at the lower torus area/tunnel in addition to the bus storage are shoes the large, extravehicular airlock with the docking port at the outer end. This area is a completely shirt-sleeve environment. A main aisleway is utilized in the torus to allow crewmen access to the equipment mounted on both sides of the aisleway. The aisleway and equipment are structurally supported from the Deck-1 bulkhead above, which forms the ceiling of the toroidal area. Two large 4- by 5- access openings in the Deck-1 bulkhead (toroidal ceiling) provide access to the toroidal area. The lower tunnel is also utilized as an extra-vehicular airlock with a docking port at one end and pressure hatch at the other. Below the torus area are located the propellant tanks of the RCS.

Space Station Launch Sequence

Solar Array Deployment/Sequence

Experiment Operating Modes

The experiments operating on the Space Station can either be accommodated integrally to the core module in a module that is attached to one of the docking ports on a semipermanent basis but which can be easily be replaced when its usefulness has expired and in detached flying-type modules which periodically rendezvous and dock with the Space Station core module for periodic module and experiment maintenance, update, film/tape reloading, etc.

Shuttle Mission Profile

Presenting a more detailed look at the mission from launch to docking, this chart depicts the launch readiness through the max q and the subsequent staging operations, the insertion into 50 by 100 nautical-mile elliptical orbit, and the subsequent rendezvous and docking maneuvering.