NAA Orbital Transfer Credit - Mark Wade

North American Aviation's Reusable Ten Ton Orbital Carrier Vehicle design of 1963 had as a standard payload a lenticular 12-man orbital transfer vehicle spaceplane for space station logistics and crew transfer.

The final concept resulting from the $342,000 NASA study contract had launch mass of 11,340 kg. Two crew plus ten passengers, or a mix of passengers and cargo, could be carried. The saucer-shaped body merged aft into a thick planform with vertical stabilizers along the base. Yaw thrusters were at the tops of the vertical stabilizers, the pitch thrusters above the engine bay, and the roll thrusters at the roots of the stabilizers. A single gimbaled engine provided thrust for orbital maneuvers. Crew access was via a 1.2-m-diameter hatch at the top of the saucer. The pilot used a periscope for forward vision during landing. Horizontal landing was on skid main gear and a wheeled nose gear, as on the same company's X-15.

The sled-launched rocketplane's booster was 32.9 meters long and would have been powered by a single F-1 and two H-1 kerosene/LOX engines plus turbojets for return to base. The winged second stage was mounted on top of the booster and would have used three liquid oxygen/hydrogen J-2 engines. This fully reusable system would have had a gross liftoff weight of 548,847 kg.

Crew Size: 12. Mass: 11,340 kg (25,000 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: NAA RTTOCV.

• Jenkins, Dennis R,, Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System : The First 100 Missions, Third edition, Voyageur Press, 2001. ISBN: 0963397451. Excellent - the most comprehensive account of the design, development, and flights of the space shuttle.Takes the reader from the maze of designs during the first shuttle competition to future plans. More at amazon.com...