Message posted by Mark Lincoln on May 27, 2006 at 12:14:57 PST:

DynaSoar was a program without a mission.

It was NOT an orbital vehicle, it had no operational sponsor, it had no follow on potential for an operational mission.

It was even eclipsed by the Air Force's panic "beat the Army' Man In Space Soonest program.

It was replaced by "Blue Gemini" aka "Manned Orbital Laboratory" which was to be a manned spy satellite, which was cancelled when it became apparent that having folks moving around in the spacecraft, and the attendant emissions of those folks, would totally degrade any photography. Unmanned satellites were a far better deal at a far lower cost.

Gus Grissom had a lot of input as to cockpit layout of the Gemini but to describe him as a co-designer is a total stretch.

One interesting thing about DynaSoar was that it was intended to have the pilot fly the launch profile as well as the reentry and landing. This was done many times in simulators, and in the later Apollo program there was an emergency capability for the mission commander to take over the flight during launch if necessary.

In Reply to: Re: Another picture; it's an X-20 drawing posted by Andre' M. Dall'au on May 26, 2006 at 3:52:16 PST:

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