Manned Orbiting Laboratory

MOL

Mission Profile

Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was a US Air Force classified military space station program running from 1963 to 1969, designed to station astronauts in orbit for 30-day reconnaissance missions using large-format cameras and other intelligence collection equipment. Launched aboard a Titan IIIM rocket, the station would have housed two USAF astronauts in a small pressurized cylinder with a Gemini B capsule docked at the forward end for crew access and return. MOL was cancelled in June 1969 as unmanned reconnaissance satellites proved capable of superior intelligence collection at far lower cost, and the KH-9 HEXAGON and subsequent programs rendered crewed reconnaissance redundant. Many MOL astronaut candidates transferred to NASA and flew on later Space Shuttle missions.