NASA Discovers Space Spies From the 60's

Saeed al-Sahaf writes "In a room forgotten for more than thirty years at NASA's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA recently found suits for space spies. Originally thought to be Gemini suits, the manufacturer determined that they were suits from a short-lived Cold War-era military program to put a manned reconnaissance station in space. Begun in 1964, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program was an Air Force initiative that would have sent Air Force astronauts to a space station in a Gemini capsule. After spending a few weeks in orbit, the crew would undock and return to Earth. An interesting blast from the past."

Comments

Some clarifications

[Chairboy]

The reason the suits looked like Gemini era suits was because the MOL program was based on Gemini technology.

A Titan IIIC booster with a 'Blue Gemini' atop would launch with the space station afixed, they would do their observation, then the Gemini would detach and land. Later missions could dock with the existing observation platform when feasible.

The launches would have taken place from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. This is needed to efficiently put spacecraft into polar orbit without overflying populated land during boost.

A launch site was created at Vandenburg to handle manned spacecraft launches, but the program was cancelled as the article says. What it doesn't say is that the same complex was refurbished in the 1980s as part of the effort to launch the Space Shuttle into polar orbit for military missions. That program was cancelled as well (following the Challenger destruction).

For people interested in MOL, go check out the X-20 Dynasoar. It was a related program that would have had a reusable spaceplane 15 years before the shuttle.

Re:Wow... the 1960's..

[AKAImBatman]

Articles like this make me look forward to the 1960's.. They were really advanced..

There is some truth to this. The US developed *amazing* levels of space technology in the 1960s. Take a look:

8,000,000 tons from ground zero to anywhere in the Solar System
Plenty of power for regular Moon trips
Jets with unlimited range (Okay, the actual design of this one was a little scary. Still, the principles are sound.)
Complete Space Station in one launch
118 metric tons to orbit

Now all of it has been buried and forgotten. Advancement? We've buried our collective heads in the sand. That's why Bush's CEV program actually makes sense. He must have listened to his NASA engineers for a change, because the CEV is a staged program that is predicated on using existing technology to build a space infrastructure. No waiting for someone to invent the Starship Enterprise, we're going NOW. And to do it, we're pulling out many of the bits of technology that we forgot. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm excited about this program. :-)