Apollo R-3

American manned spacecraft. Study 1962. General Electric's Apollo horizontal-landing alternative to the ballistic D-2 capsule was the R-3 lifting body. This modified lenticular shape provided a lift-to-drag ratio of just 0.

70 but eliminated the severe heating and weight problems General Electric believed to be inherent in the basic lenticular configuration.

The 2935 kg space pod was 4.57 m long and 3.30 m across. The propulsion module was as in the baseline GE Apollo proposal, but with the lifting body mounted atop the launch vehicle, any mission module was placed aft of the glider and accessed via a long tunnel. The re-entry vehicle used both ablative and radiative heat shielding and had a cross-range capability of 1500 km.