Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started

Man-Carrying Satellite

Found an interesting nugget here.

Convair Shuttlecraft at Astronautix

Image credit: Krafft Ehricke Papers / Convair

Image source: NASM

Satellite Glider

Top: Ascent into Space

Bottom: Emergency Separation of Inhabited Nose

Convair Shuttlecraft at Astronautix

Image credit: Krafft Ehricke Papers / Convair

Image source: NASM

Ken Hodges

Douglas Astro at Astronautix

Image credit: Krafft Ehricke Papers

Image source: NASM

Space Delivery

Space delivery – The partnership of the space ferry and the manned laboratory is demonstrated in this sketch. Here astronauts in a Douglas Astro ferry approach a huge space station with fresh supplies of food and test equipment. Eventually, experimental orbiting stations may give way to orbiting terminals for space travelers of the future.

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

Douglas Astro at Astronautix

Image credit: Douglas

Image source: Numbers Station

Lockheed Space Taxi

Recoverable Rocket Boosters by Tony R. Landis, AFMC History Office

Lockheed Space Taxi at Astronautix

Image credit: Lockheed

Image source: AFMC 

Assembling Spaceball

Huge space ferries are used by astronauts to perform the final assembly of the huge Spaceball orbiting station.

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

Douglas Astro at Astronautix

Image credit: Douglas

Image source: Numbers Station

Do The Astro!

ASTRO — a manned reusable spacecraft concept developed by Douglas Aircraft.

PLAN AND ELEVATION views of ASTRO A2 vehicle. Note booster vehicle attachment at aft end.

Missiles and Rockets, September 3, 1962

Douglas Astro at Astronautix

Image credit: Douglas

Image source: Internet Archive

Douglas Astro

(ADVANCE FOR AMS OF TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, WITH SPACECRAFT STORY)

(NY11-Feb. 24) WINGLESS, PILOTED SPACECRAFT TO BE TESTED — This is an artist’s conception of the wingless, piloted spacecraft that can be maneuvred over 1,000 miles for landing after re-entering the atmosphere. The craft, shown leaving the vicinity of the earth for a mission in space, is slated for testing in the early spring. The new concept, knowing as the “M-2 Lifting Body,” was to be unveiled Tuesday by scientists of the Ames Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, at Moffett Field, Calif.

(NASA Photo via APWirephoto) (prll400nasa) 1963

Douglas Astro at Astronautix

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Numbers Station

Convair Shuttlecraft

Convair Shuttlecraft at Astronautix

Image credit: Convair

Image source: SDASM Archives