NOVA ORIGIN BY PAUL VREEDE

Paul Vreede's fabulous research on Spacex origins continues with the Nova:

Here is another Valigursky illustration from the Man and Space book (second down), showing the origin of the Spacex Nova Rocket design (top picture). Nova was the name for a very extensive series of design exercises to develop a successor to the Saturn V boosters used in the Apollo missions. Next to NASA itself, a number of contractors also submitted numerous designs. Details on the Nova programme can be found on Mark Wade's brilliant Astronautix site which is a huge encyclopedia on the history of spaceflight, and is by far the best place to start or verify research on anything in this field.

As the two line drawings show above, the Spacex Nova Rocket is a Model E designed by General Dynamics (drawings are (c) Mark Wade and gratefully used according to his terms and conditions). I presume the Model E must've been designed prior to 1962 to appear in a book published that year, btw. :) The other spacecraft looks rather like the Douglas DAC Helios also shown on Mr Wade's Nova page, and I assume the same comment about years and dates applies.

Best--Paul

Really excellent Paul.