MOL Manned Orbiting Laboratory, Final Design Credit: © Mark Wade |
AKA: AFP-632;Dorian;Dorian, AFP-632, KH-10;KH-10;Manned Orbiting Laboratory. Status: Operational 1966. First Launch: 1966-11-03. Last Launch: 1966-11-03. Number: 1 . Payload: 2,700 kg (5,900 lb). Gross mass: 14,476 kg (31,914 lb). Unfuelled mass: 14,376 kg (31,693 lb). Specific impulse: 255 s. Height: 21.92 m (71.91 ft). Diameter: 3.05 m (10.00 ft).
The crew rode the station to orbit and returned to earth aboard a Gemini-B capsule that was part of the station - no rendezvous or docking was required. Experiments planned ranged the gamut from military reconnaissance using large optical cameras and side-looking radar, through interception and inspection of satellites, to exploring the usefulness of man in space and test of Manned Maneuvering Units.
After cancellation, some of the reconnaissance systems ended up in later KH series satellites, and some of the manned experiments were accomplished on Skylab.
Crew Size: 2. Orbital Storage: 40 days. Habitable Volume: 11.30 m3. Spacecraft delta v: 101 m/s (331 ft/sec). Electric System: 2,000.00 kWh. Electric System: 2.00 average kW.
Gemini B AM American manned spacecraft module. Cancelled 1969. Adapter module for Gemini B, the engines serving as both abort motors during ascent to orbit and for retrofire on return to earth. Abort/deorbit propulsion. |
Gemini B RM American manned spacecraft. Cancelled 1969. Gemini was extensively redesigned for the MOL Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. The resulting Gemini B, although externally similar, was essentially a completely new spacecraft. Reentry capsule. |
MOL LM American manned space station module. Cancelled 1969. The Laboratory Module consisted of a forward unpressurized section 2.43 m long, followed by an aft pressurized section, a 3.37 m long cylinder with 2.79 m diameter hemispherical bulkheads at each end. Space station military. |
MOL MM American manned space station module. Cancelled 1969. The MOL Mission Module took up most of the spacecraft. It had a length of 11.24 m and was divided into two major bays, the forward section 4.42 m long, and the aft section 6.82 m long. |
MOL Space Suit American space suit. Cancelled 1969. Space suit designed to support launch/re-entry and Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) aboard the USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory. Developed from 1965-1969, when MOL was cancelled. |
MOL 3 At the time of the cancellation of the MOL program in June 1969, the first manned mission was planned for early 1972. A crew of two would have spent thirty days in orbit operating sophisticated military reconnaissance equipment and other experiments. |
MOL 4 Planned date of second manned MOL mission at time of the program cancellation. |
MOL 5 Planned date of third manned MOL mission at time of the program cancellation. |
MOL 6 Planned date of fourth manned MOL mission at time of the program cancellation. From the beginning of the project, the Navy had demanded that this be an all-Navy crew, which would limit the crew to Truly, with either Overmyer or Crippen as co-pilot. |
MOL 7 Planned date of fifth manned MOL mission. This mission was already deleted from the FY 1970 budget request in April 1969, two months before the entire project was cancelled. |
MOL Credit: © Dan Roam |
Gemini B Panel Gemini B control panel, as would be used in the MOL project, showing numerous changes from NASA Gemini. Credit: Glen Swanson |
Gemini B Gemini B cross-section Credit: McDonnell Douglas |
MOL LM View 2 MOL Lab Module cutaway Credit: McDonnell Douglas |
MOL LM View 1 MOL Lab Module cutaway Credit: McDonnell Douglas |
MOL LM Forward MOL Lab Module forward unpressurised section Credit: McDonnell Douglas |
MOL Full Size Credit: © Dan Roam |
MOL early design MOL early design concept Credit: © Mark Wade |
MOL seen from Gemini MOL seen from Gemini over hurricane Credit: © Mark Wade |
MOL in flight MOL in flight over Pacific Credit: © Mark Wade |
MOL in flight MOL in flight over Sinai Peninsula Credit: © Mark Wade |
MOL seen from Gemini MOL seen from Gemini over Sinai Peninsula Credit: © Mark Wade |
MOL in flight MOL in flight over Sinai Peninsula Credit: © Mark Wade |
MOL seen from Gemini MOL seen from Gemini over Sinai Peninsula Credit: © Mark Wade |
MOL MOL as it actually would have appeared in space Credit: © Mark Wade |
Manned Orbiting Lab Manned Orbiting Laboratory Credit: © Mark Wade |
MOL Mockup Credit: Manufacturer Image |
Gemini Control Panel Gemini control panel - close-up of the pedestal controls between the two astronauts. Credit: NASA |
Gemini Spacecraft Credit: © Mark Wade |
H. Kurt Strass of Space Task Group's Flight Systems Division (FSD) recommended the establishment of a committee to consider the preliminary design of a two-man space laboratory. Representatives from each of the specialist groups within FSD would work with a special projects group, the work to culminate in a set of design specifications for the two-man Mercury.
Representatives from Avco Manufacturing Corporation made a presentation to MSC on a proposal for a space station. Prime purpose of the station, company spokesmen said, was to determine the effects of zero-g on the crew's ability to stand reentry and thus fix the limit that man could safely remain in orbit. Avco's proposed station design comprised three separate tubes about 3 m in diameter and 6 m long, launched separately aboard Titan IIs and joined in a triangular shape in orbit. A standard Gemini spacecraft was to serve as ferry vehicle.
The President's Scientific Advisory Committee requested a briefing from the Air Force on possible military space missions, biomedical experiments to be performed in space, and the capability of Gemini, Apollo, and the X-20 vehicles to execute these requirements.
The Director of Defense for Research and Engineering recommended to the Secretary of Defense cancellation of the X-20 program and initiation of a space station program. Harold Brown believed that Blue Gemini could accommodate significantly greater payload for such missions. He recommended that DynaSoar be cancelled and replaced by a Gemini-serviced space station.
In a memorandum to the Secretary of the Air Force, Dr. Flax disagreed with Dr. Brown's space station proposal and argued against the cancellation of the X-20. Secretary Zuckert informed the Secretary of Defense that he supported the posit of Dr. Flax. Major General I. K. Hester, Assistant Vice Chief of Staff, offered a space station program which employed the X-20.
Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced cancellation of the X-20 Dyna Soar project at a news briefing at the Pentagon. McNamara stated that fiscal resources thereby saved would be channeled into broader research on the problems and potential value of manned military operations in space, chiefly the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) project. These decisions on the X-20 and MOL had been discussed and coordinated with NASA, and, although the Air Force received responsibility for the MOL project, NASA would continue to provide technical support. By the end of 1963 $410 million had been spent on Dynasoar, with another $373 million needed through the first flight. It was decided to complete re-entry testing of the Asset subscale unmanned vehicle, at a cost of $ 41 million.
Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara assigned responsibility for the development of a near-earth Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) to the Air Force. First manned flight was tentatively planned for late 1967 or early 1968. A modified Titan III, the Titan HIM, would be used to place the laboratories in orbit from Vandenberg.
NASA Hq advised the centers regarding the agency's official position vis-a-vis the Defense Department's Manned Orbiting Laboratory project. Both NASA and DOD viewed MOL as a project designed to fulfill immediate military requirements. The project could not be construed as meeting the much broader objectives and goals of a national space station program being studied by both organizations under post-Apollo research and development program policy agreements between NASA Administrator James E. Webb and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara (dated 14 September 1963).
MSC Director Robert R. Gilruth apprised George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, of recent discussions with officers from the Air Force's Space Systems Division regarding MSC's joint participation in the MOL project in the area of operational control and support. Such joint cooperation might comprise two separate areas: manning requirements for the control center and staffing of actual facilities. Gilruth suggested that such joint cooperation would work to the benefit of both organizations involved. Furthermore, because a number of unidentified problems inevitably existed, he recommended the creation of a joint NASA Air Force group to study the entire question so that such uncertainties might be identified and resolved.
In the wake of the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory project and the likelihood of NASA's undertaking some type of manned orbiting research laboratory, Director of Advanced Manned Missions Studies Edward Z. Gray sought to achieve within NASA a better understanding of the utility of such projects as a base for experiments in space. Accordingly, he created three separate working groups to deal with possible experiments in three separate categories: (l) big-medical, (2) scientific, and (3) engineering.
James J. Haggerty, Jr., Space Editor for the Army-Navy-Air Force Journal and Register, called the assignment of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory to the Department of Defense 'an ominous harbinger of a reversal in trend, an indication that the military services may play a more prominent role in future space exploration at NASA's expense.... Whether you label it development platform, satellite platform, satellite or laboratory, it is clearly intended as a beginning for space station technology. It is also clearly the intent of this administration that, at least in the initial stages, space station development shall be under military rather than civil cognizance....'
Following an overview of the planned trip of Bykovsky and Gagarin to Sweden and Norway on 1-15 March, American military space plans are reviewed. There are many fantastic projects, over a wide and well-financed front. Currently reconnaissance satellites are flying, to be followed by inspection, and then anti-satellite satellites in 3 to 5 years. After that manned military space stations are planned, manoeuvrable manned spacecraft, and the establishment of scientific and military bases on the moon. Despite this big US program, the Soviet military leadership shows no interest in Russian exploitation of space for military purposes.
Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert announced that three firms, Douglas Aircraft Company, General Electric Company, and The Martin Company, had received authorization to begin work on space station studies. Zuckert predicted also that the Titan III would be test-flown that summer and would launch the Manned Orbiting Laboratory sometime in 1967 or 1968.
In a letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson, Senator Clinton P. Anderson, Chairman of the Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, recommended that the Air Force's MOL and NASA's Apollo X programs be merged. Senator Anderson argued that a jointly operated national space station program would most effectively use the nation's available resources. He claimed that $1 billion could be saved during the next five years if the MOL were canceled and those funds applied to NASA's Apollo-based space station program. Additional Details: here....
Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara announced that the Department of Defense was requesting proposals from the aerospace industry for design studies to support development of the MOL (especially cost and technical data). Three contractors would be chosen to conduct the studies, a step preliminary to any DOD decision to proceed with full-scale development of the space laboratory.
Central Committee of the Communist Party and Council of Soviet Ministers Decree 'On expansion of military space research and on 7K-VI Zvezda' was issued. In June 1965 Gemini 4 began the first American experiments in military space. At the same time the large military Manned Orbital Laboratory space station was on the verge of being given its final go-ahead. These events caused a bit of a panic among the Soviet military, where the Soyuz-R and Almaz projects were in the very earliest stages of design and would not fly until 1968 at the earliest. VPK head Leonid Smirnov ordered that urgent measures be taken to test manned military techniques in orbit at the earliest possible date. Modifications were to be made to the Voskhod and Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft to assess the military utility of manned visual and photographic reconnaissance; of inspection of enemy satellites from orbit; attacking enemy spacecraft; and obtaining early warning of nuclear attack. The decree instructed Kozlov to fly by 1967 a military research variant of the Soyuz 7K-OK 11F615.
President Johnson announced approval for the Department of Defense's $1.5-billion Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). At a White House news conference, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced approval for the Department of Defense's development of the $1.5-billion Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). Such a program, the President said, would bring 'new knowledge about what man is able to do in space.' Further, MOL 'will enable us to relate that ability to the defense of America.'
President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he had approved the Defense Department plans for the development of a Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) that would cost $1. 5 billion. The Air Force was to continue its management of the MOL program. Douglas Aircraft Company was to design and build the spacecraft that would be boosted into orbit by the Titan IIIM version of the Titan IIIC space launch vehicle.
Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert named General Bernard A. F. Schriever as Director of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) Program in addition to his duties as Commander, AFSC. Brigadier General Harry L. Evans was named Vice Director of the MOL Program.
In the initial activity report outlining MSC's support to the Air Force on the MOL, Gemini Program Manager Charles W. Mathews summarized activity to date. He cited receipt on 20 November 1965 of authority to transfer surplus Gemini equipment to the MOL project. Since that time, he said, MSC had delivered to the Air Force several boilerplate test vehicles and a variety of support and handling equipment. MOL program officials and astronauts had also visited Houston for technical discussions and briefings.
House Committee recommended combining NASA's Apollo Applications Program with the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory. A report by the Military Operations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Operations recommended combining NASA's Apollo Applications Program with the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory. 'Inasmuch as both programs are still research and development projects without definitive operational missions,' stated the Committee's report, 'there is reason to expect that with earnest efforts both agencies could get together on a joint program incorporating both unique and similar experiments of each agency.'
Representatives of the Air Force and NASA met at Brooks AFB, Texas, to exchange information on medical experiments planned for the Air Force's MOL project and NASA's AAP. Stanley White, who headed the USAF group of aerospace medical experts, expressed strong interest in exploiting NASA's AAP project to study the effects of long-duration space flight on human life processes. White stated the Air Force's desire that MOL thus be relieved of this experiment burden so program planners could direct the program more closely toward evaluating man's utility for military space operations. The meeting furnished the basis for closer ties between the two organizations on their biomedical activities, observed NASA's Acting Director of Space Medicine, Jack Bollerud.
A Titan IIIC (Vehicle #9), the ninth research and development Titan III and sixth Titan IIIC to be launched from Cape Canaveral, completed the most difficult flight plan and most successful mission to date. The primary objective of injecting a modified Gemini spacecraft into a suborbital trajectory to test the reentry heat shield for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program was accomplished. After dipping down to 80 nautical miles to eject the MOL load, the Transtage pitched up and placed a canister containing 11 experiments into a 160-nautical mile circular orbit. This modified Titan 2 propellant tank represented the MOL station itself. It allowed study of the aerodynamic loads associated with launching the MOL into orbit and validated the very long length to diameter core represented by the MOL/Titan 3M configuration. It is possible certain prototype MOL equipment was flown as well.
NASA agrees to fly four Deparment of Defense experiments planned for MOL on Apollo Applications mission instead (later Skylab). These included an inflatable airlock experiment. NASA also provided the Gemini 6 capsule to the Air Force for MOL crew training.
Weight growth of the MOL station forced the Air Force to consider upgrading of the Titan booster. Stretching of the booster core or use of 156 inch solid rocket motors was considered. The Air Force also dithered as to whether to compete the Titan booster contract. Eight months were spent making the decision, and at the end of it all the first manned MOL flight was delayed to 1970 and the projected total cost increased from $ 1.5 billion to $ 2.2 billion.
The Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory Systems Program Office requested that MSC present a briefing to selected office and contractor personnel on NASA's progress in safety studies and tests associated with fire hazards aboard manned space vehicles. Information was requested for the MOL program to help formulate studies and activities that would not duplicate MSC efforts. The briefing was given at MSC May 10.
Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard announced the cancellation of the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program because of the need to reduce defense spending. The cancellation was expected to save $ 1.5 billion of the projected total $ 3.0 billion program costs. The SLC-6 launch facility at Vandenberg, 90% complete, would be finished and mothballed. MOL reconnaisance systems useful on unmanned satellites would be completed for a total cost of $ 225 million. Ten thousand aerospace workers were laid off as a result of the cancellation. The program was initiated in 1965 to advance the development of both manned and unmanned defense-oriented space equipment and to ascertain the full extent of man's utility in space for defense purposes. Following MOL termination, NASA requested that the MOL food and diet contract with Whirlpool Corporation and the space suit development contract with Hamilton Standard Division, United Aircraft Corporation, be transferred to NASA.
Acting on an offer made by the Defense Department to assign a number of astronauts from the defunct MOL project to NASA, Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George E. Mueller chose seven astronauts to augment MSC's flight crews. They were Karol J. Bobko, Charles G. Fullerton, Henry W. Hartsfield, and Donald H. Peterson (USAF); Richard H. Truly and Robert L. Crippin (USN); and Robert F. Overmyer (USMC). The decision to utilize these individuals, Mueller stated, derived from their extensive training and experience on the MOL project and the important national aspect of future manned space flight programs.
With the termination of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, the Air Force provided MSFC with three environment conditioning units capable of delivering fresh air into a small enclosed space at a desired temperature and humidity. The units would be used during bench checks and troubleshooting on the ATM experiments and the related ground support equipment during storage and the preinstallation period.