By Kevin Huang

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...

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

Seventh crewed Apollo mission aborted after the Oxygen tank of the Service Module exploded.

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.

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...

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 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

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 Eiffleman

Launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Site of the Mercury-Redstone 3 flight, America's first manned space flight with Astronaut Alan Shepard. LEGO LC-5 model with 976 bricks

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.

By Eiffleman

Mobile launcher for the Little Joe II rocket.

By Kevin Huang

Titan III configuration launched four times to test the Titan transtage and later incorporated as the core stage for the Titan IIIC.

By Eiffleman

First American manned space station launched 14 May, 1973. Originated as the Orbital Workshop then vastly upgraded to take advantage of remaining Saturn V rockets.

By Eiffleman

American launch vehicle derived from the Titan II missile. Launched twelve Gemini program missions featuring the first flights with two astronauts.

By Eiffleman

Four stage rocket derived from the Jupiter-C sounding rocket. After the "Sputnik Crisis" and the failure of the Vanguard program, a Juno I rocket was used to launch America's first satellite, Explorer 1.