The Grumman 619 in orbit, deploying a satellite. Here you can see the humped cargo bay doors. Not visible here are turbojets in the cargo bay; they were left out of this particular mission. The orbiter would thus have to land as a pure glider.
An illustration of Grumman’s 619 Space Shuttle – the final competitor for the competition that North American Rockwell won – lifting off. This design from 1972 was laid out pretty much as the final Space Transportation System was, but with some notable differences:
1) Stabilizing fins on the external tank
2) A “humped” back
3) four turbojet engines could be stored in the rear of the cargo bay, used for landing range extension, go-around capability and self-ferrying
4) Smaller OMS pods
5) Separate reaction control pods on the wingtips
A collection of designs produced for alternate space shuttle configurations. This was the last gasp for configurations substantially different from what actually got built…. the second design from the far right became the baseline layout. But even with a recognizable orbiter and external tank, considerable variation was possible in overall launch vehicle layout. Not shown is a flyback booster option.
An illustration from Goodyear, circa 1960, showing the evolution of the “METEOR” launch vehicle and space station systems. Note that it goes back to at least 1949, and perhaps earlier. See also Space Doc 55.
A NASA illustration from 1988 depicting a Shuttle C launch vehicle in flight.
A Grumman alternate Space Shuttle concept with a low cross range orbiter and a trio of 156-inch diameter solid propellant rockets for the first and second stages. The orbiter itself was stuffed with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks; even so, the high density of the solid rockets meant that the vehicle as a whole was remarkably compact.
Anotherbasic concept from Grumman for an alternate shuttle concept. This one featured a pressure fed booster composed of three identical hydrogen/oxygen stages in parallel for the first stage, and two strap-on pressure-fed stages along the sides of the orbiter.
A Grumman alternate Space Shuttle concept with a low cross range orbiter and a series of pressue-fed storable-propellant rockets for the first and second stages. Pressure-fed boosters like this are heavy and relatively low-performance, but also relatively simple and cheap. The heavy construction required for the large high-pressure tanks makes them readily recoverable and refurbishable.
Artwork (via the NASA HQ History Office) of the Lockheed STAR Clipper. This was an early stage-and-a-half concept with a reusable orbiter and expendable propellant tanks. Vastly more info on this is available in APR issue V3N2.
A piece of NASA presentation artwork from 1962 depicting an “Advanced Saturn” (a.k.a. “Saturn C -5” a.k.a. “Saturn V”) with a nuclear third stage instead of the S-IVb stage.
