Saturn SSTO

[Atlantis]

This model is loosley inspired by the McDonnell Douglas SASSTO Concept and a model by Mike Robel. It's made out of cardstock and wood, utilising components from Ton Noteboom's Saturn V. It's also thhe first model I built with the Huntsville Plastic Modeling Society.

Following the discontinuation of the moon landings, NASA was looking for a reusable spacecraft that could ferry crews back and forth from LEO and use the minimum of amount of new hardware due to budget cuts and the fact the  Space Shuttle program had been cancelled along with the Mars program. However, congress had approved a space station, dubbed Freedom (launched all at once by a modified Saturn V) that would serve as an orbiting laboratory (but not as a jumping off point to the moon and Mars as hoped).  This search led to this odd looking contraption becoming a centerpiece of NASA's faster,better,  and cheaper program. The craft consisted of a plug-nozzle equipped S-IVB and a 5 person Apollo CM (derived from the Skylab rescue ship) that was directly attached to the SLA that functioned as both a crew module and escape capsule. This model depicts Enterprise (named so because of a large number of Star Trek fans) , which was the first of these craft to fly into space on April 12, 1977.

[The Rat]

Most excellent! 

[GTX]

Most excellent! 

Agreed!

Regards,

Greg

[sotoolslinger]

Yep