Saturn – Page 4 – numbers station

RIFT

Image credit: Convair

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.

Optional fairing around the two-man Gemini Capsule;
Gemini adapter section;
Transition support structure;
Orbit injection / retro and control propellant tanks (6);
Toroidal liquid-oxygen tank;
Annular combustion chamber;
Truncated plug nozzle and re-entry heat shield;
Attitude-control system (4);
Retractable landing legs (4);
Spherical liquid-hydrogen propellant tank.

Frontiers of Space
Philip Bono & Kenneth Gatland
Macmillan, 1969

SASSTO at Astronautix

Image credit: Douglas

Image source(s):

SDASM Archives

Numbers Station

Orbital Workshop by Neil Jacobe

B&W (As seen in Roundup dated Nov. 24, 1967)
NOV. 67 S-67-51373

MANNED SPACE CENTER, HOUSTON, TEXAS

ORBITAL WORKSHOP — Artist’s concept showing how a Saturn S-IVB stage will appear when converted to the Apollo Applications Orbital Workshop. Launched fully fueled with airlock and docking adaptor attached, the S-IVB’s liquid hydrogen tank becomes a shirtsleeve environment workshop after the fuel has been depleted. At left is an Apollo Command and Service Module launched separately and docked into one of the docking adaptor’s ports. The Apollo Telescope Mount is shown docked into one of the side ports. The ATM will be joined to the cluster in a second phase of the program. Solar cell “wings” to provide power fold outward from the S-IVB after orbit is achieved. McDonnell Douglas Corporation’s Missile and Space Systems Division is making the S-IVB orbital workshop modifications under contract to NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and McDonnell Astronautics Company is developing the airlock under contract to MSC. (MCDONNELL DOUGLAS PHOTOGRAPH)

Look closely and you’ll notice subtle differences between this version of the painting and a colour rendering found in the SDASM Archives I’ve shared before.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Jacobe’s work, his artwork for the Douglas MOL can be found here. The images are small and plastered with watermarks, so it’s a bit of a tease but they are beautiful.

Skylab at Astronautix

Image credit: NASA

Image source: Numbers Station

S-69-60223

Space Station 1970 at Astronautix

Image credit: North American Rockwell

Image source(s):

NASA

Mike Acs

Apollo Flight Configuration

The Saturn V configuration is shown in inches and meters as illustrated by the Boeing Company. The Saturn V vehicle consisted of three stages: the S-IC (first) stage powered by five F-1 engines, the S-II (second) stage powered by five J-2 engines, the S-IVB (third) stage powered by one J-2 engine. A top for the first three stages was designed to contain the instrument unit, the guidance system, the Apollo spacecraft, and the escape system. The Apollo spacecraft consisted of the lunar module, the service module, and the command module. The Saturn V was designed perform lunar and planetary missions and it was capable of placing 280,000 pounds into Earth orbit.

Saturn V at Astronautix

Image credit: NASA

Image source: NASA MSFC