NASA Facts: Manned Spaceflight Programs, Lot of 5

Five issues of “NASA Facts” tracing the manned program from Mercury through Skylab. “Manned Space Flight: Projects Mercury and Gemini” (NF-9, Vol. II, No. 8) lays out NASA’s three-step plan — Mercury, Gemini, Apollo — pairing a photo of the one-man Mercury capsule beside the two-man Gemini spacecraft. “Living in Space” (Vol. III, No. 5) looks at the life-support challenges of extended missions, illustrated with a pressure-suited test subject checking equipment in a simulated space cabin, and looks ahead to orbiting laboratories and multi-year interplanetary voyages.

“Manned Space Flight: Apollo” (NF-23, Vol. IV, No. 7, replacing Vol. III, No. 1) sets out Apollo’s three goals — landing and returning astronauts safely, establishing technology for other national interests in space, and U.S. preeminence in space — and explains why lunar-orbit rendezvous was chosen over the direct-flight and earth-orbit-rendezvous alternatives for the 82-foot, 45-ton spacecraft assembly.

The two remaining issues bookend the Skylab program: “Skylab” (NF-43/1-72), subtitled “A Preview of America’s First Earth-Orbiting Space Station” and carrying the Skylab Mission Plan, was issued in 1972 ahead of launch to describe the planned Earth-resources, solar, and medical experiments; “Skylab – 1973-1974,” issued by the Public Affairs Office in Washington, recaps the program after it had actually flown.