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A planning document depicted 12-man and 40-man stations, both with self-defense capability. It described the 40-man, Y-shaped station as a “spaceborne command post” in synchronous orbit. The key requirement was “post attack survivability”, the station would be capable of “Strategic/tactical decision making” during a general war.
MOL Spacesuit
Launch of MOL Test Flight
Future MOL Command Post
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Strangely enough the MOL astronauts only knew of the cover story that the program would be a space laboratory for military experiments and did not learn of the reconnaissance role until after selection.
Manned Orbiting Laboratory
Mockup of MOL
Gemini B Heat Shield with Hatch
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NASA feasibility studies determined that a research space laboratory could be placed in orbit by 1967. However, to fund such a project it had to be justified by achieving a national goal, or an important science goal, or test of technology.
X-20 Dyna-Soar
MOL Configuration
Gemini B
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A scant five months after Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean in December of 1972, NASA launched Skylab to begin a new phase of American manned spaceflight – space station operations.
Outpost
A Home in Space
Apollo ‘A’
