The Orbital Vehicle (OV) is the second most important vehicle in order to have a viable and profitable space program. However, without the VentureStar, the OV will go nowhere.
It is astonishing to note that the OV concept is almost as old as NASA itself. They called it a space tug and it could carry cargo and/or a crew (Image 1). A more fitting descriptor for this vehicle should really be space "truck" instead of space "tug," since it will haul payload from one location to another.
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| Image 1: NASA drawing of a space tug circa 1970s |
The NASA OV was designed to fit inside the Space Shuttle payload bay so that it can be transported into outer space.
This space truck would augment orbital spaceflight and allow humans to reach farther than the spaceliner can (Image 2).
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| Image 2: The OTV is a versatile machine indeed. |
Our space truck will be an updated version of an old OV (Image 3).
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| Image 3: the interior view of a typical OV |
Incredibly, the Boeing design above was first revealed in 1972.
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