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Description

The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was part of the United States Air Force (USAF) human spaceflight program in the 1960s. The project was developed from initial USAF concepts of crewed space stations as reconnaissance satellites and was a successor to the canceled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military reconnaissance space plane. The MOL was developed into a single-use laboratory, for which crews would fly 30-day missions and return to Earth using the Gemini B spacecraft, derived from NASA’s Gemini.

They announced the MOL program to the public on 10 December 1963 as an inhabited platform to show the utility of placing people in space for military missions; its reconnaissance satellite mission was a secret black project. They selected seventeen astronauts for the program, including Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr., the first African-American astronaut. The prime contractor for the project was McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. the Douglas Aircraft Company built the laboratory. The Gemini B was externally similar to NASA’s Gemini spacecraft. However, it underwent several modifications, including the addition of a circular hatch through the heat shield. This allowed passage between the spacecraft and the laboratory. Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) was developed to permit launches into polar orbit.

As the 1960s progressed, the Vietnam War competed with the MOL for funds, and the resultant budget cuts repeatedly postponed its first operational flight. Automated systems rapidly improved, narrowing the benefits of a crewed space platform over an automated one. They conducted a single uncrewed test flight of the Gemini B spacecraft on 3 November 1966. However, the MOL was canceled in June 1969 with no crewed missions being flown.

Station statistics
Crew      2
Carrier rocket     Titan IIIM
Mission status    Canceled
Mass      14,476 kg (31,914 lb)
Length   21.92 m (71.9 ft)
Diameter             3.05 m (10.0 ft)
Pressurized volume         11.3 m3 (400 cu ft)

Orbital inclination            Polar orbit

Description

The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was part of the United States Air Force (USAF) human spaceflight program in the 1960s. The project was developed from initial USAF concepts of crewed space stations as reconnaissance satellites and was a successor to the canceled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military reconnaissance space plane. The MOL was developed into a single-use laboratory, for which crews would fly 30-day missions and return to Earth using the Gemini B spacecraft, derived from NASA’s Gemini.

They announced the MOL program to the public on 10 December 1963 as an inhabited platform to show the utility of placing people in space for military missions; its reconnaissance satellite mission was a secret black project. They selected seventeen astronauts for the program, including Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr., the first African-American astronaut. The prime contractor for the project was McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. the Douglas Aircraft Company built the laboratory. The Gemini B was externally similar to NASA’s Gemini spacecraft. However, it underwent several modifications, including the addition of a circular hatch through the heat shield. This allowed passage between the spacecraft and the laboratory. Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) was developed to permit launches into polar orbit.

As the 1960s progressed, the Vietnam War competed with the MOL for funds, and the resultant budget cuts repeatedly postponed its first operational flight. Automated systems rapidly improved, narrowing the benefits of a crewed space platform over an automated one. They conducted a single uncrewed test flight of the Gemini B spacecraft on 3 November 1966. However, the MOL was canceled in June 1969 with no crewed missions being flown.

Station statistics
Crew      2
Carrier rocket     Titan IIIM
Mission status    Canceled
Mass      14,476 kg (31,914 lb)
Length   21.92 m (71.9 ft)
Diameter             3.05 m (10.0 ft)
Pressurized volume         11.3 m3 (400 cu ft)

Orbital inclination            Polar orbit