Martin Astroplane Art: 1

As described in issue V2N5 of Aerospace Projects Review, in 1961 the USAF examined input from numerous contractors for the Aero Space plane project… a single stage to orbit “aircraft” that could perform militarily useful missions in orbit.

One ASP design that saw a smidgeon of press at the time was the Martin Co. “Astroplane.”  It was a long, slim vehicle that used nuclear propulsion… an air scoop fed either liquified air or liquid nitrogen to a solid-core nuclear rocket (or to an MHD thruster, though this seems doubtful). If it separated the oxygen from the nitrogen, the oxygen would probably be used to run conventional chemical rocket engines.

Technical info on this particualr vehicle is rather hard to come by. See V2N5 of APR for more information on a variant design of the Astroplane.