Category: Robert McCall

Four Space-Shuttle Concepts

Here are examples of tentative designs for a space shuttle, made public by members of the four industrial teams competing in the project:

  1. McDonnell Douglas/Marietta
  2. Boeing/Lockheed
  3. North American/General Dynamics
  4. Grumman Aerospace

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

The Next Steps

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The shuttlecraft docked with the station -in this case a top docking, but a nose docking is also possible. Two other shuttlecraft are seen, each of a slightly different configuration, since this scene looks forward to a time when shuttles, like aircraft today, will be specially designed according to their functions.

Our World in Space
Robert McCall & Isaac Asimov
New York Graphic Society, 1974

Image credit: Robert McCall
Image source: Numbers Station

Astronaut Firing His Maneuvering Unit

Our World in Space
Robert McCall & Isaac Asimov
New York Graphic Society, 1974

Image credit: Robert McCall 
Image source: Numbers Station

TITAN III “C” W/X-20A

TITAN III “C” W/X-20A

Image credit: USAF
Image source: Mike Acs