May 022010
From 1968 or before, a concept for a zero-g space station to be launched by the Saturn V. Clearly a Skylab-predecessor; built from an S-IVb upper stage like the Skylab, this design was somewhat more complex than Skylab in that it was partitioned out more completely and featured an internal centrifuge (which would have played hell with stability for the astronomical telescopes).
2 Responses to “North American Aviation Space Station”
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I remember these illustrations. Can’t remember from where, seems like they were in a book I had, or perhaps from an encyclopedia. I used the bottom one to model my own drawings on.
They were sure keen on turning that LM descent stage into a telescope, weren’t they? In this case they have two of them on it…neither of which are using the upper landing gear structure for anything at all other than holding them in the top of the S-IVB stage.
At least have them deploy solar arrays with them or something.
As far as the gyro goes, assuming it’s well-balanced, that would allow them to stay locked one one area of the sky for a half-orbit around the Earth.