+ 1970 News Releases (7.6 Mb PDF file) - NASA

,:I;;A'A'
mi
I' '_IONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
h,.NNEDSPACECRAFT .,.ous*on
ENTE
Texas
483-5111 September 8, 1970
MSC 70-98
Two European companies will join with U. S. firms in design studies
of a space shuttle for possible manned flight missions of the late 1970s
and
beyond.
Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm_ of West Germany_ and the British Aircraft
Corp. (BAC) will co:_duct sub-systems studies as subcontractors to
North American Rockwell's Space Division_ which heads one of two U. S.
industrial teams under co:_tract to the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration for shuttl_ definition and preliminary design studies.
The European companies work will be financed by their respective
governments at no cost to North American Rockwell. They will assign
portions of their engineecing teams to work at North American's Space
Division in Downey_ CalifDrnia.
Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohn will study the shuttle's attitude-control
rocket system_ and BAC will investigate structures, aerodynamics_ flighttest
instrumentation_ and _ata handling.
The space shuttle is envisaged as a reusable airplane-like vehicle
for carrying people and cargo between Earth and low Earth orbit at greatly
reduced costs compared with present expendable launch vehicles.
Definition and preliminary design studies for the shuttle are also
being made for NASA by a team of U. S. aerospace firms headed by McDonnell-
Douglas Corp._ St. Louis.
#X#