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  • Manned Orbiting Laboratory

    When the Dyna-Soar program was cancelled in December 1963, the Air Force continued its efforts to develop a capability for manned space operations. In the spring of 1964, the USAF began work on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), an evolution of the earlier "Blue Gemini" program, which was

  • SV-5D PRIME Lifting Body

    The PRIME project was the second part of the Spacecraft Technology and Advanced Re-entry Tests (START) program. It had the dual objective of testing advances in space hardware and further exploring the development of manned and unmanned lifting body vehicles. Four SV-5D vehicles were built by the

  • ASV-3 ASSET Lifting Body

    The ASSET program was the first phase of Spacecraft Technology and Advanced Re-entry Tests (START). This was a USAF research program designed to develop a reusable, maneuverable, re-entry vehicle capable of being flown from earth orbit to a precise landing point on earth. Since wings provide no lift

  • Dyna-Soar X-20A

    As the Aerobee and other programs, including the X-15, were testing the edges of the atmosphere, the Air Force was at work on a vehicle to realize the reusable spacecraft concept. Titled Dyna-Soar for "Dynamic Soaring," the new program (actually an amalgamation of several earlier programs)

  • Aerojet Aerobee Rocket

    The Aerobee was designed to carry instruments aloft to collect data on the upper atmosphere and to place small animals in a weightless condition for physiological studies. It was launched by a solid-propellant booster engine of 18,000 pounds thrust that burned for only two and a half seconds. After

  • Sentinels of Freedom: Air Force Strategic Missiles

     Since 1959, U.S. Air Force strategic nuclear-armed missiles and the Airmen who operate and maintain them have been on constant alert. The Missile & Space Gallery features USAF missiles that helped maintain peace among Cold War superpowers. They have shaped the world's strategic balance for more

  • German V-2

    Much of the basic theory used by German scientists in the development of the engine for the V-2 came from experimentation by Dr. Robert Goddard in the United States. Post-war American liquid fueled rocket engines evolved directly from the German V-2 engine; later U.S. Air Force space boosters owed

  • V-2 Rocket

    This rocket engine powered Germany's V-2 "Vengeance Weapon" during World War II. The engine was a technical achievement, using high-speed pumps to move large volumes of fuel into the thrust chamber very quickly. Its design also contributed to American rocketry following WWII.The V-2's liquid oxygen

  • Minuteman III Second Stage Rocket

    This rocket engine, designed and built by Aerojet, powers the second stage of the Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, large numbers of which are currently on constant alert in blast-proof underground silos at various locations in the United States.After a Minuteman III is launched by

  • Bell Model 8048

    This liquid-fueled rocket engine powered early Agena spacecraft that played a crucial role in putting the first reconnaissance and early warning satellites into orbit in the 1950s and 1960s. Used as a second stage to boost satellites into higher orbits, Agena upper stages transformed Air Force