Northrop LBEC
Spacecraft · USA
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Northrop Lifting Body Escape Concept - 3 crew - an ancestor of the X-38.
American manned rescue spacecraft. Study 1976. Northrop, building on its work on the HL-10 and M2-F3 lifting bodies, proposed a lifting body three-crew lifeboat. The piloted spacecraft would use a parasail for recovery.
A crew of three would be accommodated in a pressurized cabin. The pilot would be required to actively control the spacecraft for retrofire, re-entry, and landing. Development of new heat shield materials would be required. In this Northrop proposal can be seen the same approach used in the X-38 a quarter of a century later. Mass per crew 650 kg.
Crew Size: 3.
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- Space station orbit
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- USA
- Propellants
- Solid
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- Northrop
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