Re: FOBS as a Primary Motivator for Human Spaceflight

Derek Lyons wrote:
Andre Lieven <andrelieven@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Now, its true that the US needed to use military derived manned
boosters into the mid 60s ( Atlas- Mercury; Titan 2- Gemini, plus
Agena atop an Atlas for the Gemini docking targets ), but by that
point in time, the missile gap issue had been overtaken by the
fact that at that time, the US had an ICBM superiority.

The key fact that Stuffie, and many others miss, is that by the time
manned spaceflight got rolling - civilian and military launch vehicle
(at least in the US) had diverged. The boosters you list may have
been derived from military sources, but they had also already been
largely abandoned by the military.

Very true. In fact, it's astonishing to realize that the Minuteman
program effectively began even before Sputnik and that the first
Minuteman missiles were demonstrated a few months before Glenn's
flight and deployed operationally several months afterwards.

--
Dave Michelson
davem@xxxxxxxxxx
.

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