By Eiffleman

American manned spaceplane used for hypersonic research. Conducted tests for ballistic flight, winged reentry, and gliding recovery. The X-15 was intended to evolve to a manned orbital spacecraft until the urgent need for the Mercury and Gemini programs surfaced. Research from the X-15 eventually led to the techniques...

By Eiffleman

Mobile launcher for the Little Joe II rocket.

by Eiffleman

The Apollo Command Module was the crew and reentry capsule portion of the CSM. It housed crew accommodation, equipment bays, and the controls and displays for operating the Apollo spacecraft.

By Kevin Huang

First launch of the Mercury program. Launched a boilerplate Mercury capsule to test the ablative heat shield, afterbody heating, and reentry dynamics.

By Eiffleman

SpaceX partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Falcon 9. Consists of a strengthened Falcon 9 first stage center core and two Falcon 9 first stage strap-on boosters. As of 2021, Falcon Heavy had the highest payload capacity of operating rockets and the third highest of...

By Kevin Huang

First American orbital human-rated launch vehicle. Used to launch the Mercury capsule to low Earth orbit.

by Kevin Huang

USAF expendable launch vehicle used from 1965 until 1982. First Titan family rocket to use large solid rocket motors. Intended for launch of the Dyna-Soar (cancelled) but primarily launched DoD payloads.

By Eiffleman

America's first crewed suborbital launch vehicle. Member of the Redstone rocket family derived from the U.S. Army's Redstone missile and the Jupiter-C LV. Used for six suborbital Mercury flights carrying astronauts Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom.

Successor to the Hubble Telescope, the JWST will enable a detailed astronomical and cosmological investigations. The 6.5 meter primary mirror will observe some of the most distant objects in the Universe.

by Eiffleman

The Titan project also had a twin track linking the assembly buildings and launch pads; specially adapted EMD SW-8 switchers were used to move the rocket.

By Joey Zinga

Modification of Kevin Huang's model First full scale prototype of the Atlas missile and progenitor of the Atlas family of rockets.

NASA launch vehicle used to test the Apollo program spacecraft and later to ferry astronauts to Skylab.

By Kaero

During the Apollo 8, Apollo 10, and Apollo 11 missions, Helicopter Sikorsky Sea King SH-3D with number 66 was the primary recovery vehicle which hoisted returning astronauts from the spacecraft command modules.

By Eiffleman

America's second manned launch vehicle and the first to reach orbit for the Mercury program. Manufactured by Convair and derived from the SM-65D Atlas missile making it a member of the Atlas family of rockets. Launched a total of four crewed Mercury spacecraft.

By Eiffleman

Cancelled USAF program to develop a multipurpose spaceplane.

By Eiffleman

Derivative of the Thor-Delta rocket using the Thor DM-21 configuration with a Delta D second stage and an Altair solid rocket motor third stage. Launched the first geosynchronous satellite, Syncom-2.