Manned Orbiting Laboratory

The manned space laboratory Manned Orbiting Laboratory ( MOL ) of the United States should serve as a spy platform for monitoring the Soviet territory. It was part of the manned space program, the U.S. Air Force and was announced on 10 December 1963 as the successor of the set X-20 Dyna- Soar program. The program, however, was set on June 10, 1969 without actually took place spaceflight. The missions should be started with a titanium - III M rocket, whose development was never completed.

The two -man crew of MOL should be started together with the respective space laboratory in a modified Gemini spacecraft, which has been referred to as Gemini -B and spend up to 40 days in space. The spacecraft was fixed to the laboratory module and had been separated at the end of the mission to bring both the astronauts and the footage back to Earth. A coupling of other spaceships, how is it possible for space stations, was not provided. After the return of the crew MOL could not be manned again.

The spy equipment of the MOL project was referred to within the Keyhole reconnaissance satellite program as KH -10 Dorian. After setting the MOL program, the reconnaissance tasks were performed by the parallel -developed unmanned KH -9 Hexagon satellite.

Test flight

The only actual space flight under the MOL program was the so-called MOL - HSQ Mission ( Manned Orbiting Laboratory - Heat Shield Qualification). This was a test flight of a MOL mockup to verify the aerodynamic configuration and start the modified heat shield of the Gemini B spacecraft and took place on November 3, 1966 with a Titan IIIC rocket from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. The landing capsule of the Gemini B spacecraft was ever flown Gemini 2- landing capsule and was placed on a suborbital trajectory, while the MOL mock reached orbit. Instead of the actual MOL an empty titanium II - fuel tank has been used, which contained some experiments and Technology " OV4 -3" was the name of the orbit. As part of this mission, the three small research satellite OV1 -6, OV4 -1R and OV4 -1T were exposed.

Specifications

Astronauts

For the MOL project in 1965 eight selected five in 1966 and 1967, four astronauts.

  • Michael J. Adams ( Air Force)
  • Albert H. Crews Jr. ( Air Force)
  • John L. Finley ( Navy )
  • Richard E. Lawyer (Air Force)
  • Lachlan Macleay (Air Force)
  • Francis G. Neubeck (Air Force)
  • James M. Taylor (Air Force)
  • Richard H. Truly ( Navy )
  • James A. Abrahamson (Air Force)
  • Robert T. Herre (Air Force)
  • Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. ( Air Force)
  • Donald H. Peterson (Air Force)

After termination of the project, NASA took over the seven astronauts of the project, who were younger than 35 years ( Truly from group 1, the entire group 2 and Peterson from Group 3 ) - including Robert Crippen (pilot of the first Space Shuttle ) and Richard Truly (Director of the NASA 1989-1992 ). These seven astronauts eventually flew all within the space shuttle program into space.

For the MOL program provided space suit

Heat shield of the Gemini -B capsule

Docking and berthing of spacecraft Corona (satellite) Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 Fuel cell Salyut programme
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