Manned Spacecraft

[22lcidw]

Since the beginning of the Space Age there have been many versions of ships to take humans into space. Which ones were your favorite? Or not so favorite? Or still to come? Up to now my favorite was the Apollo/Lunar Module combination. If you also have a preference for the rockets that launched humans into space, feel free to explain.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

For me, it would have to be the Saturn V rockets of the Apollo program. No other craft has taken men nearly as far as they did.

 

[Auld Phart]

 

[fncceo]

Atlas / Mercury and Redstone / Mercury ... the simple, solo occupant missiles that first took Americans into space.

The Saturn V / CSM-LEM combination is my second favorite, as it was the ship that took men to moon and took us further into space than humans have been for fifty years (probably the next 50 too).

My least favorites, Atlas/Gemini -- just a test bed for the real objective of the Space Race. Space Shuttle, what was supposed to kick start a re-energized American Space Program just turned into a very expensive way to get humans into LEO (where Atlas had already taken us decades earlier). Skylab ... the promised seed of a permanent human habitation in space, never materialized.