Irwin Stambler – numbers station

LORL

Three-armed LORL is shown in this artist’s sketch. Center hub, which contains parking area for several space ferries, does not rotate and thus remains weightless. Under the parking area is a laboratory for study of weightlessness. The three arms rotate around the hub to create artificial gravity. Cutaway of one arm shows it to contain a series of rooms for other laboratory requirements and studies.

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

LORL at Astronautix

Image credit: North American Aviation

Image source: Numbers Station

Titan III C

The huge Titan III C vehicle, towering over 150 feet into the air, movies into place on the launch pad. Missile is carried on same railroad car on which its parts were assembled.

Once the solid rockets have lifted Titan III C and it’s payload off the ground, their role is finished. As this sketch shows, when the solids burn out, they separate from the core section. Just before solid burnout, the first-stage liquid propellant engines are ignited to push the spacecraft farther towards space.

Course of the Titan III and it’s payload is monitored from a launch center such as this.

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

Titan at Astronautix

Image credit: USAF

Image source: National Archives

Northrop Lander

First manned landing on Mars! This Northrop sketch shows how a soft landing on the red planet might look from ground level. A steerable gliding cloverleaf parachute slows the craft down as the retrorockets start to fire. The parachute is then jettisoned, and the retrorockets perform the final maneuver for touchdown. Retrorocket braking was perfected in the 1960’s to provide the soft landings for the Surveyor moon probe.

Project Viking: Space Conquest Beyond the Moon

by Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Numbers Station

Get To Da Choppa!

Project Viking: Space Conquest Beyond the Moon

by Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Numbers Station

A Laboratory on Mars

Prime goal of Project Viking is this National Aeronautics and Space Administration sketch, to land a biological laboratory on the surface of Mars. The picture shows a design in which the protective housing around the experiments unfolds in petal fashion once the laboratory is safely on the Martian surface.

Project Viking: Space Conquest Beyond the Moon

by Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

Project Viking at Astronautix

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Numbers Station

Boeing Viking

Project Viking: Space Conquest Beyond the Moon

by Irwin Stambler
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

Project Viking at Astronautix

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Numbers Station

LORL (Lockheed)

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

LORL at Astronautix

Image credit: Lockheed

Image source: Numbers Station

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

Orbiting Laboratory

Medium-sized orbiting lab is this Manned Orbital Research Laboratory (MORL) developed for NASA’s Langley Lab by Douglas Missiles & Spacecraft Division. The lab which weighs about 35,000 pounds, could maintain 3 to 6 men in orbit for a year.

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

MORL at Astronautix

Image credit: Douglas

Image source: SDASM Archives

Artist Unknown

The MOL – Manned Orbiting Laboratory – is shown, in this artist’s view, being lifted into space by the Titan III C. On top of the cylindrical canister, the crew sit in a modified Gemini capsule.

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

Gemini B/MOL at Astronautix

Image credit: USAF

Image source: Numbers Station