Space flight

Hampton, Virginia -- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Lunar Orbiter IV spacecraft completed its photographic survey mission by returning telephoto pictures of 99 percent of the Moon's front face. The broad cross-hatched area on this chart indicates telephoto picture coverage from apolune photography. Arrows A and B at top show regions totaling one percent which were photographed in wide angle but not in telephoto pictures.

Photograph showing a one-third scaled model of the Saturn I Block II launch vehicle. Ground wind investigations form an indispensible part of the painstaking research program that lies behind successful flights of launch vehicles of all sizes, and the National Aeronautics And Space Administration Langley Research Center has specialized in such wind-tunnel studies for many years. Here, in a cooperative program with the George C.

Photograph showing a one-fourth scale Apollo manned lunar spacecraft model in the Impacting Structures Facility at Langley Research Center, Virginia. Investigations of earth landing characteristics are conducted on this model. Test conditions are being selected to simulate parachute letdown, although a parachute is not attached to the model in the photo. The model is swung by an overhead device to obtain the desired landing velocities. Landing tests are being made to determine accelerations and motions during sand landings of the spacecraft.

Devices like the Rendezvous Docking Simulator in this photo at the NASA Langley Research Center are being developed by NASA scientists to explore, under controlled laboratory conditions, many complex aspects of space flight. The facility will enable scientists to determine man's ability to complete a rendezvous in either Earth of lunar orbit during the final 200 feet of the docking maneuver. Two research pilots ride in a full-scale model of the Gemini spacecraft and, by operating its controls, bring it into gentle, final contact with a target vehicle.

A 1/30th scale model of a proposed Manned Orbiting Research Laboratory (MORL) system under extensive investigation at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Langley Research Center, Virginia. The MORL system, capable of year-long missions, could provide scientists with many opportunities for scientific and engineering research which cannot be performed on Earth. The MORL is based on maximum use of NASA space systems being developed or in existence. The study model shows one concept of a Manned Orbiting Research Laboratory with the Saturn IV stage of the Saturn I launch vehicle.