Jul 5 1984
From The Space Library
NASA announced that MSFC had awarded contracts to Martin Marietta Aerospace Company Denver, and Boeing Aerospace Company, Seattle, to study a space vehicle to move payloads from low Earth orbits to higher orbits. The "parallel" studies, concurrent but independent studies in the same area of concentration, for an Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) would run for 15 months at about $1 million each. The companies would conduct conceptual studies to examine the possibilities of both space-based and ground-based transfer vehicles. The space-based version would be maintained and refueled at the Space Station; the ground-based vehicle would be carried into space by the Space Shuttle for deployment.
The transfer vehicle, as it was conceived by Marshall engineers, would be an unmanned upper-stage in the beginning. The ultimate goal, however, would be to develop a manned vehicle capable of ferrying a crew capsule to geosynchronous orbit. The vehicle would then return the crew and capsule for other missions. (NASA Release 84-90)
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