Category: Manufacturer

SASSTO

SASSTO (Saturn Application Single-Stage-to-Orbit) combined launch vehicle and spacecraft. Only 62.3 ft (19m.) tall, a single plug-nozzle engine would serve both as launch vehicle and for soft-landing back on Earth after an orbital mission. The craft – seen here with a Gemini two-man capsule – would be recovered intact and could be used repeatedly. It would be a particularly appropriate for ferry missions into Earth-orbit including the emergency rescue of astronauts.

Image credit: Douglas
Images: SDASM Archives

S-69-60223

source

Image credit: North American Rockwell
Images: NASA, Mike Acs

Surface Operations

53762330

Image credit: Convair
Image source: SDASM Archives

Exploratory Vehicle

source

A Boeing design for a manned orbital or interplanetary reconnaissance vehicle. The vehicle would be built in orbit around the earth around the Earth, inside a plastic bubble having controlled atmosphere and pressure, permitting technicians to work without space suits. Propelled by a nuclear-powered plasma jet, it could travel to planets within our solar-system , carrying shuttle vehicles to make the actual observations of planet surfaces. Nylon nets, rather than flooring, would divide the vehicle into seven levels.

Eagle Book of Rockets and Space
by John W.R. Taylor and Maurice Allward
Longacre Press, 1961

Image credit: Boeing Aircraft Company
Image source: Numbers Station

X-20 by George Mathis

source

330-PSA-279-62 (USAF 167026): Artwork by George Mathis of how the Air Force Titan III Standard Launch Vehicle may look boosting the United States Air Force X-20 (Dyna-Soar) into orbit, August 1962.

Image credit: Boeing
Image source: National Museum of U.S. Navy

Assembly & Launch

Image credit: North American Rockwell
Image source: Numbers Station

Outpost III

14_031550

Image credit: Convair
Image source: SDASM Archives