"Declassified: US Military's Secret Cold War Space ..." Topic

…Project Revealed.

"A newly released treasure trove of historical data reveals intriguing details about a secret Cold War project known as the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL).

The U.S. Air Force's MOL program ran from December 1963 until its cancellation in June 1969. The program spent $1.56 USD billion during that time, according to some estimates.

While the program never actually lofted a crewed space station, those nearly six years were quite eventful, featuring the selection of 17 MOL astronauts, the remodeling of NASA's two-seat Gemini spacecraft, the development of the Titan-3C launch vehicle and the building of an MOL launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California…"
See here
link

Amicalement
Armand

hhhmmm, says the program never lofted a crewed space station. Yet it ran for six years and cost $1.5 USD billion. Skylab ran 8 years from 1966 – 1974, and cost $2.2 USD Billion.

Well, it doesn't say they didn't create a manned moon base, or a spaceship now, does it?

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I deny everything !!!!! I know nothing !!!! Nothing !!!!

If you study the history of the USAF involvement with NASA you'll find several attempts to put the Air Force In Space. The problem was none of the civilian leadership (read Presidents) ever really wanted to see a manned military presence. Keeping it as a "research" program and wheeling out some copy and a few photos of prototypes let the Russians know that we had the intent and possible capability to militarize space if the need ever arose.

By '69 the powers that be decided to pull the plug and focus funding on the Space Shuttle. That project never would have been green lit without Air Force help. Part of the deal was that the Air Force got a shuttle to play with from time to time to carry out missions of its choosing.

In the end that never really worked out. AFAIK the USAF never launched a shuttle out of Vandenberg and only carried out a couple of "classified" launches from KSC.