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Rendezvous with The MOL

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Carefully watching the displays on their instrument panel, two astronauts in their Gemini ferry prepare to rendezvous with the MOL.

Orbiting Stations: Stopovers to Space Travel
Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1965

Image credit: USAF
Image source: Numbers Station

LM Derived Vehicles

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  1. LM
  2. Extended LM
  3. Lunar Reconnaissance Module
  4. LM Taxi
  5. LM Truck
  6. LM Payload Module
  7. LM Shelter
  8. Lunar Base Module
  9. LM/Stellar ATM
  10. Rescue LM

Image credit: Grumman
Image source: NASA HQ

Origin of The SST

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  1. Lockheed’s L-2000 SST design, loser in the competition with Boeing for US/SST contract, was result of decade of tunnel testing, incorporating best features of fixed wing double-delta concept proved out in SR-71. Lockheed’s philosophy was simplicity in design for better safety and economy.
  2. How to build an SST! Brilliant Lockheed designer Clarence L. (Kelly) Johnson, who created such successful planes as the U-2, SR-71, F-104 and the Constellation, amused fellow aircrafters with satirical drawing portraying design problems encountered with the SST.

The SST: Here it comes, ready or not
by Don Dwiggins
Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1968

Image credit: Lockheed
Image source: Numbers Station

Dyna-Soar On A Leash

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This drawing from the magazine Air Force and Space Digest shows a proposed NASA “ONE-STAGE-TO-ORBIT” aerospace plane. The craft would be able to take off from a regular airport using turbojet engines, then switch to ramjet propulsion at supersonic speed. To reach orbital speed in space, the aerospace plane would use a third set of engines using rocket propulsion.

In the drawing (above) the combination turbo-ramjet engines are housed in pods, just inside the vertical tailfins (on either side). The huge scoop atop the rear half of the fuselage contains the rocket engines and a novel collection and compression unit for gathering oxygen to burn in the rockets. The other propellant would be liquid oxygen carried in the craft’s tanks.

After it’s orbital mission, the aerospace plane would be able to reenter the atmosphere and land as a conventional aircraft at an airfield. The craft would be about 90 feet long and weigh some 100,000 pounds.

CREDIT LINE (UPI PHOTO) 7-21-62 (ML)
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL ROTO SERVICE

Image credit: USAF
Image source: Numbers Station

The Space Shuttle

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NASA Spinoff – 1981

Image credit: NASA
Image source: Internet Archive

Man Will Conquer Space Soon

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  1. Man will Conquer Space Soon.
  2. Men and materials arrive in a winged rocket and take “space taxis” to wheeled space station at right. Men wear pressurized suits. Three “space taxis’ can be seen – one leaving rocket, another reaching satellite, a third near the already-built astronomical observatory.
  3. Skin of rocket ship’s third stage (shown over Cape Town, South Africa) glows read hot on return trip. Phenomenon does not occur during ascent.

Man will Conquer Space Soon
Collier’s, March 22, 1953

Image credit: Collier’s
Image source: AIAA Houston