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Krafft Ehricke Project Outpost MOL Space Station


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Greetings!

This is my build of the "Project Outpost" manned orbiting laboratory space station proposed by Krafft Ehricke around 1958. I used salvaged parts from a heavily damaged Hawk kit along with some bits from the spares bin and a few scratch built items. Project Outpost was a fascinating proposal to utilize an Atlas booster as the basis for a four man orbiting space station. The delta shaped "life boats" design is especially interesting. Hawk Models issued a kit of this design in the late 1950's called the Convair Atlas Space Station and a reissue in 1966 called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. Both featured a detailed interior viewed through a clear section of the booster.

Many thanks for having a look, your questions, comments, and suggestions are most welcome.

Cheers,

Bill

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That's excellent, I think some of the shots with the astronaut would make a great '70s sci-fi book cover :)

Were the lifeboats only for use in an emergency, i.e. what was the plan for normal arrivals and departures of the crew?

Will

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That is smashing.

I was watching some of the 1950s Walt Disney space specials last night and that would fit right in. It's very much a 1950s vision of what spaceflight might be like.

I've read that this proposal was instrumental in the design of Skylab.

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Many thanks!

I found this short description of Project Outpost which includes a brief discussion concerning the "lifeboats" and crew transfer procedures:

nyrath_Escanear0002.jpg

Here is an image of the first issue of the kit from Hawk Models (note the clear booster section and interior detail):

cass_boxtop_01.jpg

Finally, a photo of Krafft Ehricke and a very large scale model of his design (obviously the basis for the Hawk Model):

ehricke_outpost_1.jpg

Cheers,

Bill

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  • 3 weeks later...

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