Along with the Titan launched station shown here, Boeing also put forward a design for a “wet lab” space station to be launched by a Saturn I. This station would be a prepackaged unit not unlike the Manned orbiting Laboratory, but permanently fixed to the front of the Saturn I’s S-IV second stage. Once in orbit solar panels would unfurl. The hydrogen tank of the S-IV would be available for further utilization.
And to access the space station, Boeing suggested an operational version of the Dyna Soar as a Space Shuttle. The Shuttle would differ from the X-20 Dyna Soar in that the systems, materials and design would be refined after lessons learned from the X-20; the mass of science instruments would be deleted, freeing up considerable space in the center section to install seating for four space suited passengers (see here, here and here for more on that), and the power and thermal control systems in the aft repackaged to make room for a passageway tunnel leading into the Transstage adapter. Additional cargo space would be provided by splicing in a cylindrical section between the adapter and the Transstage. With further refinement, a sixth passenger could be squeezed into the aft section. Additionally, docking probes would be added to the upper side of the Dyna Soar wings.
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3 Responses to “The Saturn launched space station for Dyna Soar”
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That’s the one on this “Deep Cold” YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1sO8OKKFZg
…Damn. I was looking for info on this concept, and not only do I find this page, I find Pat posted here.
RIP, ol’ buddy. You’re still missed 🙁
:OM:
I wanna see rayguns and Phazers, Photon Torpedos and cloaking stuff