In the 1980’s, military spaceplanes were all the rage… at least on paper. In 1985 Rockwell International considered the possibility that there would be a profitable business case for a relatively small manned spaceplane that could serve as a rapid-reaction launch system for missions such as recon. Thirty years later the X-37 finally accomplished something sorta along those lines, though without the crew and rapid reaction.

In 1985, Rockwell International contemplated the idea of the Space Station turning a profit for the company. At this point the Space Station seemed a reasonably certain program, though it would take another decade, the fall of the USSR and several complete revamps before assembly would really begin .

Next: advanced manned military spacecraft.

In 1985 Rockwell – perhaps half-heartedly – suggested the possibility of a business case for a manned station in geosynchronous orbit. The station would be used to service satellites in GEO. While an interesting notion, satellites in GEO relatively rarely require any actual servicing; the three billion dollars Rockwell expected such a system would cost (and let’s face it, the cost would doubtless balloon) would likely far outweigh the cost of simply replacing the satellites.

In 1985, Rockwell considered that there might be a market for space construction facilities for large orbital structure such as solar power satellites, large radio/radar antenna, SDI “elements” (likely references the relatively gigantic neutral particle beams, space based lasers and other “space guns” that were contemplated at the time) and other large structures. This capability was first contemplated in the mid 70’s for the SPS program, but did not really last much past the late 80’s when such vast structures were no longer really expected anytime soon.