



Image credit: Lockheed
File source: NASA NTRS




Image credit: Lockheed
File source: NASA NTRS

Image credit: NASA Langley
Image source: Internet Archive

Image credit: Lockheed
Image source: SDASM Archives

Image credit: Boeing
Image source: Numbers Station

Image credit: North American Rockwell
Image source: National Archives

Image credit: Liebig
Image source: Numbers Station




Here are examples of tentative designs for a space shuttle, made public by members of the four industrial teams competing in the project:
Each of pictured space-shuttle versions is a composite craft consisting of two stages, a booster and an orbiter, and is launched vertically like a space rocket, as shown. It’s two stages separate in space, and both return to earth for re-use.
Image credit: Robert McCall
Text and Images: Popular Science

Image credit: NASA KSC
Image source: Numbers Station