Bell Project 7969

American manned spacecraft. Study 1958. Bell's preferred concept for the Air Force initial manned space project was the boost-glide vehicle they had been developing for the Dynasoar program.

When pressed they considered briefly a minimum vehicle, spherical in shape, weighing about 1,400 kg. But their baseline was the Dynasoar approach - 'anything else would be a stunt'. It was expected that a first manned orbital flight of the boost-glide vehicle could be achieved five years after a go-ahead at a cost of $ 889 million.