USAF Station Credit - NASA

During 1962 NASA Centers, the Air Force, and many of the major aerospace contractors were developing possible space station concepts and studying their potential uses. This was the Air Force recommended concept of the period.

The station would apparently be launched by a member of the USAF Titan vehicle family. The Centaur-derived upper stage was 3.05 m in diameter and was equipped with four RL10 engines. In the artificial-G station concept, the spent stage provided a counterweight to the separate space station module.

The zero-G station used the spent stage concept to outfit the hydrogen tank of the upper stage with a three-story living and working area. The station was launched unmanned. Crews were rotated using a Saturn-I or Titan-3 launched Apollo spacecraft.