SAMSP Credit - NASA via Marcus Lindroos Media Gallery

While NASA/Johnson was studying the Space Operations Center concept, the Marshall Space Flight Center was lobbying for its own station -- the Science and Applications Manned Space Platform (SAMSP). MSFC envisioned a series of cheap 'platforms' costing only $500 million that could be outfitted for different missions. One mission would be to service spacecraft such as the Hubble Space Telescope. The platform would provide power, communications, thermal control and other services for standard Shuttle payload experiments -- it essentially served as a surrogate Shuttle payload bay. SAMSP could gradually evolve into a manned space station by adding pressurized crew modules derived from Spacelab. Initially, SAMSP would have a crew of three to four astronauts.

NASA/Marshall issued a number of Science and Applications Manned Space Platform contracts to McDonnell-Douglas and TRW in 1980. A 1981 unmanned TRW platform design carried three Spacelab unpressurised experiment pallets, including a space telescope. Two large solar panel 'wings' generated power while the radiator dumped excess heat produced by the experiments. The unmanned TRW platform could be customized for different missions. The TRW platform could be transformed into a human-tended microgravity laboratory by adding Spacelab pressurized modules. These would contain sensitive experiments and be replaced at regular intervals by visiting Space Shuttles.

Article by Marcus Lindroos

Typical orbit: 400 km circular orbit, 28.5 deg. Electrical System: Solar panels. Associated Launch Vehicle: Shuttle.