Early Program Development

This 1969 artist's concept illustrates the use of three major elements of NASA's Integrated program, as proposed by President Nixon's Space Task Group. In Phases I and II, a Space Tug with a manipulator-equipped crew module removes a cargo module from an early Space Shuttle Orbiter and docks with it. In Phases III and IV, the Space Tug with attached cargo module flys toward a Nuclear Shuttle. As a result of the Space Task Group's recommendations for more commonality and integration in the American space program, Marshall Space Flight Center engineers studied many of the spacecraft depicted here.