Apollo CSM Shuttle

Mission Profile

Apollo CSM Shuttle was a 1966 NASA concept study exploring whether a modified Apollo Command and Service Module could be used as the crew transport vehicle for an early Space Shuttle concept, allowing NASA to start crewed operations while the full Shuttle system was developed. The concept would have used existing Apollo hardware on a Saturn-derived launcher to carry crew to a rotating space station, with the Shuttle serving only as a logistics vehicle rather than a crew transport. The idea was superseded as the Space Shuttle design matured to include crewed transport capability, and Apollo-derived crew vehicles were not pursued for the post-Apollo era. It represents the complex planning debates of the late 1960s around what should follow the Apollo lunar program.